Legend of the White Dragon
by MewMew1989
Summary: Maya, a brilliant but impetuous and maladjusted punk, joins with up with Jeffrey, Jolene, and Yukio to form Team Dark Duelists, a group of anti-META, Nietzsche-wanna-be losers As they try to take down "the system" they profoundly change the Dueling World. Like the original YGO, the story is about corrupt corporations and mystical ancient plots.
1. Duel 1 - The Next King of Games

**Duel 1 - The Next King of Games**

Blackness. Dark gray clouds streaked the sky in thin tapers, yawning fingers stretching out to smother all of New York City in its grip, blotting out the sun so completely it was indistinguishable from night. Rain was usually beautiful, mystifying, bringing joy and sadness to whomever it visited, but now it was a thick smattering dirty hailstorm.

Maya scampered as frantically as a frightened hare, bolting past the sluggish people, hopping past sidewalks, and almost killing herself sidestepping speeding cars. She didn't even bother to put her backpack over her head, leaving her completely unshielded to the cold, heavy storm. She was a fast, but it wouldn't save her from being late to the Academy.

The Academy of New York City was one of many Duel Academies around the country and the world, prodigious schools that trained unassuming duelists into renowned champions. But just to enter, applicants had to pass two difficult tests. Maya already passed the written exam mailed to her with an average score. Now she had to arrive in person to pass the practical exam.

What was a duelist? A duelist was a strange human being: a warrior and an artist, a star athlete and a fantasy gaming nerd, a clown and a philosopher. And what tied all those idiosyncrasies together was the nature of their art; a mass-produced trading card game of magic and fantastic creatures known as Duel Monsters. It was a game given such weight by the public an expert reaped as much wealth and fame as a Super Bowl star.

But the best thing of all was to be a true duelist, a champion player who embodied the best qualities of the game. And the greatest True Duelist that ever lived was the King of Games himself, Yugi Motou. No duelist could ever hope to be him. The best a duelist could do was climb near to him as possible.

The academy was right ahead! In her carelessness Maya tripped and fell, plummeting to the mud and grit below. Her backpack ruptured open scattering everything in it. She doubled in agony, bitten by pain in her scraped palms, arms, and chest. After a few red, searing moments she scrambled on the sidewalk for her things. She quickly recovered a dozen cards from her Structure Deck, and a strange contraption for playing the game (or "dueling" as it was called) called a Duel Disk.

But the rest of her deck was completely missing, lost somewhere in the mud, streaming away to a gutter somewhere… Just as she was about to give up, she heard a haggard voice croak, "Aren't these yours?"

She looked up. It was a bum, a small, dirty, dark old man with haggard hair and beard, crumpled in his hideous clothes like a brown paper bag. He huddled against a towering wall where a cornice of the Academy building gave him small protection from the bitter elements. With a wrinkled, sinewy hand, he offered her missing card.

Maya quickly snatched her cards.

The bum held up a small plastic cup and shook it, shackling a small jingle of pennies. "How about some spare change."

She lurched back as if licked by a slimy ghoul, and dashed off.

Maya burst through the front door, wheezing and panting, her face blue and her arms limp from exhaustion. But that dizzying, simple happiness vanished only after a few seconds and was replaced by the usual mists of anxiety. She was very late.

She staggered to the stadium inside. There was a large arena surrounded by an amphitheater. Within the arena were a dozen sprayed tennis courts where applicants dueled proctors for their Practical Exams. The amphitheater was a ghost town. Hardly any spectators remained. Even the last applicants were wrapping up their duels and leaving.

She tugged the coat of someone who looked like an administrator, an aloof and neatly dressed man with suave sunglasses, an elegant, neatly trimmed goatee, and adorned academy uniform. "Can I please take my exam?"

The administrator glanced back at the dirty girl, a small glean of contempt in his eyes. "No! I'm sorry but all the tests are over."

"Please, let me take it! I came all this way in the rain!"

"You'll try again next year. Have faith. Everything happens for a reason."

She showed her scraped arms and palms. "Like me slamming myself on the sidewalk?"

"Well, yes. I'm sure it was either a test of your character or a way of telling you to try again next year." He waved her off dismissively. "You're too late. Come again next year."

_"No, let her try out."_

Both looked up in surprise. A young man in a top-ranking student's uniform, a long white and blue blazer, stood on the top tier of the amphitheater. He was a short and portly but handsome young man, with a tumble of thick black hair and warm but brilliant and piercing brown eyes. He carried an air of nobility but also what would have been a rustic's charm if it weren't for his uniform and the rank it suggested.

"I don't think you can do that, Matthew." The administrator protested. "All the tests are finished and all the proctors are gone. It's a violation of academy rules and is simply aggravating to make an exception."

"I am one of the top students here." Matthew sharply rebuked. "I choose to duel her because every duelist should have a chance. I choose to challenge her as a proctor."

The administrator tried to object, but gave up midway. "Whatever." He sighed. He shook his head. "Duelists are crazy."

He turned to dirty and obnoxious girl before him. If it weren't for her he would have been at home by now to watch a _James Bond_marathon on TNT. "What's your name?"

"Marina Božović, but you can call me Maya."

"Uh huh." He scribbled her name nonchalantly on a pad he was carrying. "Interesting." He pointed to one of the exit doors. "The duel will being in ten minutes. You may want to clean yourself up beforehand. The bathroom is over there."

* * *

Maya winced as she scrubbed off her wounds and tried her best to get the grime off her clothes without soaking herself. She checked herself with the small, cracked bathroom mirror. A small, dark, insignificant girl of seventeen years old stared back contemptuously. Her face, smattered by a handful of red blemishes she was dumb enough to keep touching was made worse by her swarthy skin and her mess of unruly short hair she herself had cut and dyed with disastrous results.

Pathetic.

She saw Matthew in his majestic, platinum regalia, his tussle of "rebellious but charming" hair and healthy tan standing somewhere high above wherever she stood. A hard but not stern stare, merciless but always forgiving, the embodiment of power but also of kindness… He was Yugi himself, a mighty yet humble king.

And Maya…

The grime was hardly off. Her purple jacket was tarred from her fall. Her tight wrist chains – she noticed they looked sinisterly like handcuffs – chain necklaces and black skirt were all smeared with grime. It was bad as her technicolor mess of toothpaste purple and puke green highlights. Her gashes were now a sickly dark red. She looked like as if Yugi was beaten up at school and left crouching and moaning on the floor.

A small but powerfully hot flame burned in her skull and traveled down her spine, spreading throughout her body in waves of simmering boiling water. With a heavy sigh she stumbled away.

* * *

The futuristic elevator below effortlessly pushed Maya upward through the floor to make her debut. Matthew stood opposite her, already ready for combat. Maya strapped the Duel Disk around her wrist. It spun into place; its two "wings" snapping together to form a portable gaming platform. She quickly slipped her deck into a large slot above her wrist.

**Maya: 4000 || Matthew: 4000  
**

"You get to go first." Matthew said. "Good luck."

"Thanks…" Maya drew her first card. She didn't have a bad opening hand. She had a powerful combo she could use… "Alright. Here goes. I summon **Mermaid** **Knight** Attack Mode." She slapped her card on one of five slots on the arm blade. And behold! A dazzling holographic display of lights and energetic, technological sounds! A shape suddenly appeared on the stage! A monster was summoned! Maya's monster was an amazonian mermaid with 1500 ATK, with sea green skin and wearing purple armor, brandishing a short and shield.

"I set two cards face down." She slid her two spell or traps cards into two narrow slits beneath her monster slots. Two huge holographic face down cards materialized behind her warrior mermaid. "Turn end."

"My turn!" Matthew announced. "I draw!" He barely glanced at his hand. "I summon **Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV4**!" The holographic lights formed into a small, sleek, silver hawk with 1600 ATK on Matthew's side of the field. It looked more mechanical than organic with its jointed limbs and armored metal body. "I set two of my own face-down cards." Two oversized cards appeared behind his "dragon". "You're move."

Now was the time! "I activate **A Legendary Ocean**!" Maya slid her card in a special sixth compartment on the side of her arm blade. . The space around them began to twirl into a glowing, holographic rainbow. The whole arena itself changed into the bottom of a sunken city. The bright yellow of the sun high above danced with the aquamarine, mossy buildings and the ocean blue fishes in an evocative ballet.

"My Ocean increases my monsters' ATK points by 200. Mermaid Knight's effect allows it to attack twice when Legendary Ocean is up. My Ocean also downgrades the Level of all of my monsters by 1. Now I can summon a Level 5 monster. I summon **Giga Gagagigo**." A bulky reptilian monster, sporting a whooping 2450 ATK with blue-green armor and scales, now 2560 ATK, marshaled next to Maya's amazon mermaid.

"Go my monsters! Destroy Matthew's Horus and then his Life Points." Both monsters instantly threw themselves at Matthew's dragon with the speed and directness of a javelin.

"Not so fast!" Matthew countered. "I reveal my trap, **Negate Attack**!"

One of Matthew's face down cards lifted up. A barrier, transparent but with impossible hardness, effortlessly shoved Maya's monsters away, forcing them to retreat. "Negate Attack negates all attacks." Matthew elaborated. "Furthermore, it ends the battle Phase all together."

Maya cursed. All the air was punched out of her lungs as if she slammed against a wall. She couldn't even graze him!

"Strange. You're pretty reckless for a WATER duelist. That doesn't really fit in." Maya noticed a narrow squint in Matthew's eyes, a small pique in his stare. "You walked right into my trap. Didn't you ever stop to think why I didn't attack you?"

Maya bit her lip in frustration. A flame of embarrassment fanned with a flame of resentment.

Matthew drew his next card with an incomparable grace, as if he was practicing the motions for years. "Now I'll show you how to make a proper attack. First, I activate **Mystical Space Typhoon** to destroy your Ocean field spell." A cyclone of whirling lightning and fury whiplashed the whole field into frenzy. The buildings of the ancient city crubled instantly and the entire ocean scene was vaporized. Matthew summoned yet another monster. A boiling, oozing elemental ball of molten earth took to the field, **Gaia Soul the Combustible Collective**, a monster with a whooping 2000 ATK!

"And that's not all! I activate **Level Up!**! In case you haven't noticed, my Horus monsters come in Levels; LV4, LV6, and LV8. With Level Up! I evolve my Horus to the next level!" Matthew's silver hawk glowed in a soft, green light. Thunder burst from its form as its body grew in size and complexity, morphing it into a greater creature. This was **Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6**, a larger silver hawk shaped more like a dragon. "Battle! Gaia, destroy Mermaid Kn-"

Maya reacted, flipping one of her cards in defense. "I activate **Gravity Bind**! Monsters above Level 4 can't attack!"

"I activate my trap, **Royal Decree**!" Matthew retorted. "All of your traps are negated!"

Maya's card cloaked in a red hue and later faded to black.

"Now where was I? Oh yes. Gaia, destroy Mermaid Knight!" the boiling elemental shot a blazing torch of flame from its eye, incinerating the warrior mermaid before it even got a chance to scream. Maya's Duel Disk made small beeping sounds as it trickled Maya's Life points down by 500.

"I'm not done yet! Horus, attack her reptilian beast with Blackheart Fire Blast!"

"But Horus is weaker!" Maya protested.

"I activate **Shrink **from my hand!" The spell card reduced Giga Gagagigo's ATK from a mighty 2450 to a mediocre 1225. With a loud screech, Matthew's dragon launched a volcano of flames, bursting Maya's monster into ashes. Maya winced as she was mercilessly singed from the backburner of the inferno.

And Matthew still wasn't done yet. His Horus dragon once more began to glow. "If Horus LV6 destroys a monster it evolves at the End Phase into **Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8**!" Horus expanded, doubling in size, developing every angle of its body until it reached its highest state, one of the mightiest of dragons. There was a fiery aura around Horus, or was it intimidation from its sheer size. Matthew set one final card face down.

Defeat began to set in. – But there was still one more measure.

"I set one monster face-down." A huge card appeared horizontally, right in front of Horus's aim, waiting to be obliterated.

Matthew gave Maya a pitying glance. "I activate **Nobleman of Crossout**. Your monster is banished instead of being sent to the Graveyard." A blinding flash of light shaped as a sharp blade stabbed through the card, vaporizing it instantaneously. Maya was wide open.

"Horus the Black Flame Dragon, finish her off with Blackheart Fire Blast!" His dragon screeched for one final time before firing a cannon of darkened flamed at its victim. Maya blew up and was consumed by the remorseless fire. The flames sizzled out and died. Smoke rose up, clearing the arena. Maya was conquered, beaten.

**Maya: 0 || Matthew: 4000  
**

"Well, that's it." Matthew concluded in a matter-of-fact tone. He almost wiped his hands of the matter. "Good game."

Maya remained silent. Black tar and ash settled in her chest and smothered what little remained of Maya's fighting flame while only fueling the heat of her flame of resentment. She tore her duel disk and threw it on the floor in disgust.

Matthew sighed. "You really need to work on your game if you want to come here. You didn't even scratch one Life Point from me. Come back next year."

Silently nodding, Maya scooped herself up and left the arena to the dark world outside. Home and school were the last places she wanted to go to. They were like tight prison cells or small black houses in a dark, deathly quiet forest… coffins.

But then she saw a few faint rays of sunlight managed to pierce through the black, raining clouds outside. And some of the heavy ashes blew away.


	2. Duel 2 - Life as Clockwork

**Duel 2 – Life as Clockwork**

Grey: the bricks of the buildings, the cement of the sidewalks outside. A cold fall morning. The bedroom shares this gloom. Our viola squarely set against our chin, we try a few notes, strokes close to the board and then to the bridge. Squawk! Squawk! Magpies. Crows. Starved, skeletal birds perch on a twisted black tree outside. Solitude, remoteness. A little perching space for crows and magpies.

We turn to warm sunlight and blue skies; a green terraced playing field opens. Overgrown bright yellow flowers veer to the sun as radars; playful man-sized bumblebees and fairy-like bluejays zoom from flower to flower. Barring the many levels, deceptive brick walls and stairs. Cunning illusions, appearing as things they're not, and at other times vanishing upon touch. The simple and complex, virtuosity, the bright sheen, of Mozart cadenzas and serenades.

A few notes in E-flat major, a wistful yearning from the pit of Hell. – An impulse! Presto tremolos and scales; rapid-fire shots spitting flames of red and orange! The birds and bees mutate into monstrous dancing inferi! Thick chord strokes; a lion's roar, a jet erupts from the red caverns of the earth! **HELLFIRE!–** Two notes held a fifth apart, what the viola could allow – simmering, dying down in sonorous vibrations: hot updraft, and quieting down…

Ghostly whisperings echoed from Maya's mouth. She let the blurry smoke settle until she could see shades of green and red. She reached into the green dirt and pulled out a sprout. As she planned the possibilities of that section the sprout grew a bit, it's leaves and curls maturing. She pulled a hot, glowing, orange string from the red. She strung them together until she made a curling line of bright green and flaming red.

**A B**

She was about to scrawl her ideas on a notebook when father sharply racketed at her door. Her ideas vanished. She bit her lip.

"You know I don't like it when you lock your door. And I hear you making noises again like you're a schizophrenic. I'm tired of it. Only abnormal people do this. It's time to cook breakfast and talk about college. Come on!"

Maya stepped out into their Lower East Side Manhattan apartment, a place so small a few steps took you anywhere. Her mind not with her, she let her arms prepare two shitty omelets. She sat on a small circular table opposite her father to eat.

Father, Aleksandar Bozovic, was a tall, pale, sinewy man with already grey hair and mustache. His face was of a noble's: a broad forehead and lofty, aquiline nose and cheeks with piercing cold, blue eyes. Between father and daughter was a small, black-framed picture of mother, a woman with dark, earthy skin made even darker with a black shawl draped over her head. Her face was oval-shaped and serene, of well-proportioned but plain features, except her intense, rich green eyes.

"So how will you get into college?" Father asked in Serbian. "You're doing poorly in school and you haven't taken your SATs yet and it's your senior year. What's going on? Why are you being so careless?"

This was going to be fun. "It's only September. I'll figure it out."

"I hope so. I will absolutely not support you if you don't get into college. After work you will buy practice books and I will make sure you study every day. Until then, no more music. Period."

An awkward pause. "Dad I need to write music to get into Julliard."

"No you don't." Father rebuked. "You won't be getting into any arts college on my watch. I don't want anything more to do with your amusements."

"It's _not_ amusement!" Maya protested. Was she some stupid child? "I compose for college. I have a huge portfolio. I can write any classical and jazz piece. I'm good enough to audition for Julliard. I don't need these worthless SATs. I don't need to go get a worthless job, working only to please some asshole with a suit and botox injections, living a miserable life like you."

"Yes you do, Maya. Music is like professional sports. Only a few make it. The rest starve or become piano teachers. Do I need to take you by the hand and force you to do it or will you do it yourself? You already work at two jobs, one as piano teacher, and the other at Gamestop. Ever since the war my career has been reduced to nothing. We immigrated here for us but I have been reduced to working in factories. Do you understand?"

Maya let her face fall on her hand.

Father held her hands tightly and gazed firmly at her. "I only want you to be independent, strong, and happy and live without worry." She could see in his eyes that he was honest. "Look at us? Our talents are nothing. We can only work with the dirty mob."

School was a prison, a garrison of small, tightly crowded cells linked together by narrow, packed hallways. Thick metal doors shut in the classrooms, rusty steel beams barred the windows opening to the world outside, supposedly to prevent students from falling out. An indefinite miasma of faded gray shades on all the bricks and metal and the smell of dirt sat frozen at every corner.

Professor Feynman scribbled the classical mechanics of macroscopic objects on the chalkboard, bibling every detail he wrote in a very brusque, hushed tone. "To get the force of attraction between the earth and the moon you need to take the mass of the earth, which is 5.97 × 1024 kilograms, _multiply _that by the mass of the moon, which is 7.35 × 1022 kilograms, _multiply _that by the gravitational constant, which is 3.5764465860583028fhgkiuymbucs efirhoiypjoekqwmqmznxhvjt…" He didn't even make sense anymore.

Maya was not one for words. Most of the time they didn't mean anything, a waste of aural space. Maya turned to her notebook and curled inwards, pen on her left hand and paper on the other. She kept reaching into the bottomless well of forgetfulness but after scraping until her hands were raw she could find only a few broken pieces.

Feynman stood above her, his shadow looming over her, a tall ugly being, not unlike the academy administrator from last weekend. With a deft hand he swiped away her sparse series of notes. Grumbling, Maya collapsed on her desk.

A small, compact note ungracefully hit her head. She opened it up:

It probably sucked didn't it, you talentless hack? lol degree in music. Have fun at McDonalds.

Maya craned her head. Jolene Summers, a petit, cat-like girl with bright blond hair skimmed with bright red highlights sat distractedly in feigned innocence. Her hands and feet were small and nimble and her sharp, bright green eyes peeped behind her horn–rimmed glasses.

Maya quickly scribbled her response and handed it back to her.

You must have a bright future ahead of you. How's that office job working for you? A real change of scenery.

So how was the entrance exam? Was the proctor hard cher?

A total success. After all, I'm still here. I lost in three rounds to the top student there to some prick named Matthew. They all are. I wish I could be a true duelist but at the same time I hate it. No matter what I do I'll never be one. I'll always be ugly, short, miserable, stupid. I'll never be good enough. I don't know even if I want to. They're so –

Maya handed it over. She couldn't describe it but could understand it, a water surface of empty virtues, poisoned holiness, and meanings as small as they made her feel.

At Duel Prep School they told me to 'be yourself and never give up!' But everyone used a Monarch Deck and told me how much I sucked for not using one. I refused to change so I dropped out. That's just the way Duel Monsters is.

"JC, write the answer for question twenty one." Feynman dragged JC from the back row a wisp away from where Maya sat in front of the class. JC, or Jeffrey Cade, was large, fat, dark boy who could only be described as a yeti or Bigfoot. Thick tufts of curly black hair sprawled all over his head and face and his small, mole-like eyes peeped out of his thick, black glasses.

Feynman snatched and crumpled up the Maya's note. "Both of you have detention." He briskly handed JC the chalk. "Write."

JC seemed to feel as hopelessly cramped as Maya did. He shattered the chalk against the board and glared at Feynman. He was the only kid big enough to meet him at eye level. "You know what you are old man? You're just a prop! You're just a failed man who had his dreams crushed and decided to be a miserable drone to the corporate government system instead! All you do is feed bright impressionable young minds to the ruthless prison industrial complex that is our education system!"

Maya and Jolene did a facepalm. They had years of experience with this bullshit. They knew full well where this was going. "You want to be a smartass? You have ten detentions!" Feynman cursed. "I am not in the mood for another one of your pretentious rants!"

But that didn't faze JC. A gifted orator, he gestured to the whole classroom. "You know what all you guys are? You're nothing but props too! You're nothing more than slaves with slave morality, processed meat! You're nothing more than fodder for greedy, fatcat suits with a vampire's bloodlust for the innocent! You're **constrained by social norms** and I'm not! You're nothing more than the feeble little insects in the backwaters of the microcosm of my imaginary world!"

Now the whole class groaned, but a few "brave" souls egged him on. "You tell 'em JC!" Yukio Dowie, a half-Japanese, half-British punk with spiky black hair and a soul patch, hollered from the back of the class.

"Shut up Yukio!" Jolene threw her hiss over Maya's head to smack her target. "Thanks for getting yourself in trouble idiot!"

Feynman lost it. "ENOUGH! DETENTION FOR THE WHOLE CLASS! THE FOUR OF YOU TO THE OFFICE!" The whole class shook in an uproar, a din in the facility, and Feynman promptly threw out the four insurgents.

Maya, Jolene, JC, and Yukio were left twiddling their thumbs in apprehension in the office waiting room. Jolene and Yukio were bickering with each other in sharp little stings. It wasn't even about the incident anymore but completely random and stupid things. This relationship thing was almost like a game... Maya still didn't get it. Now she had a sudden urge to punch JC in the face. She was in no mood to lie to her father.

JC seemed not to care, his hands locking together in front of his face, his thick eyebrows sternly compressed together, deep in thought… – He hit Maya with the back of his hand. "Any of you guys duel? Are you warriors or are you part of the motley crowd?"

"We don't duel professionally. Go away."

"I don't want jaded professionals. I don't want facility Gestapo, poisoned by the stench of money and hemmed in by the box of rules. I want teenagers. I want zen stupidity; selfish, enlightened, entitled assholishness that fucks authority in the face. I want vision."

"JC, even if I could understand you I wouldn't. The street corner and tinfoil hat are over there."

"No, hear me out. You, me, Jolene, Yukio, we are broken cogs of the machine. That is why we were thrown out by those teacher-bots. We are forced to live this giant, fake life, this big illusion. We get up. We go to school. We do stupid shit other people force us to do. We sleep. We get up. Who we are is what our parents tell us and who our parents are is what their boss tells them."

"And your point is…"

"Life is a circle draining to a dead end. I used to care about school, but then I realized it didn't really matter what I did. I kept trying to be something other people wanted but then I realized it was like chasing the moon. It wasn't really worth it anyway. Even if I got money I would just lose it anyway. It's like taping sandwiches on you so you never go hungry again. So, do you guys want to be duelists or not?"

JC and his three new followers descended down the antique outdoor steps of a dilapidated apartment building not too far from their school. He took a while to prize open the complex of locks and opened the thick door, leading them to the large cave that was the basement below.

It was a complete mess, filled with a random jumble of different furniture everywhere. Old taped political posters and scribbled acid trip graffiti decorated the red brick and white plaster walls; the largest one was a poster of Emma Goldman with a famous quote, "I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everyone's right to beautiful, radiant things." Scores of old moldy pamphlets of stark black and white pictures and books were littered everywhere. – Maya picked the largest pamphlet. It showed a picture of a full moon shining brightly, illuminating a field overgrowing the ruins of what used to be mighty skyscrapers. It's title: _Disintegration_. – The only technology present was an old TV with a few Nintendo 64 games and an old Windows with ludicrously large amplifiers. A huge black flag hung over, emblazoned with fiery red words:

**JC's Dungeon**

"So welcome to my humble abode. What do you think? Isn't it magnificent!"

Maya could smell the dirt and rotting wood. Jolene wanted to say something nice but fumbled for words.

"You know why I brought you here? Last week I was kicked out of McDonalds in Manhattan Mall, because they were out of ketchup! McDonalds, _famous for its fries you put on ketchup_, was out of fucking ketchup! I shouted '**VIVA LA REVOLUTION!**' I called on the people to fight against McDonalds and to overthrow their corporate masters! And people just stared me, dumbstruck like a bunch of lobotomized cows, like I was crazy! Some big fat guy called VolcanoMan looked at me with glowering eyes. 'How _dare_ you talk about McDonalds in this fashion!' And I said, 'Fuck you fat asshole!' and I punched him in the face! And that is how I was expelled from McDonalds in its typical, corrupt, corporate, fascist fashion! You know what McDonalds is? McDonalds is the embodiment of conformity and mediocrity, a black hole of nihilism where the will to power is negated to nothing more than a stupefying marching stupor for the next happy meal!"

"What does this have to do with us being duelists?" Maya asked.

"Everything! The entire dueling world is one giant McDonalds! Corporations control every facet of our lives and control Duel Monsters like any other product! They expect you to grovel and eat whatever shitty food and happy meal they give you and not complain! But if you demand any food of real substance like ketchup with your fries the employees or a flunky like VolcanoMan throws beats you and throws you out! What those useful idiots don't understand is that no matter how much more privilege they get for being sell-outs they will always be pawns of the manager in the office! The reason why they no one realizes this is because the manager sits in the back!"

JC's voice was horse now, and he was panting from his long-winded rant. Maya, Jolene, Yukio didn't know what to say. Were they mesmerized or appalled? They didn't know.

JC regained his strength and spoke again, but no longer in shouts but in horse whispers. He pointed at each member of his audience. "Jolene, this is why you left prep school and will never win the nationals. Yukio, this is why you can never win any tournaments and why your Elemental Hero Deck sucks. Maya, this is why you lost against Matthew, and why you feel like such a loser whose life trapped in such a dead. But that's over. From now on we are Team Dark Duelists. Every weekend we meet up here, to play _Mario Kart _and watch _Fight Club_,but most importantly to cause chaos. This is the beginning of a grand heroic myth. The twilight of the gods is here. **VIVA LA REVOLUTION!**"

His small audience made a tiny applause. Somehow, in spite of his abrasiveness, crudeness, and obscenity, or because of it, he was able to gain the hearts of the three lonely souls in front of him. In this dirty old basement in lower Manhattan, in this tiny microcosm, one of the deepest changes in human history was made. And all four were part of this spark, this tiny yet infinite moment.

Maya headed back up. She had to come up with some good excuse to father now.

"Where do you think you're going?" Jolene said. "Do you have a Duelist ID?"

"What?"

"Every duelist must register in the Dueling Network to compete." Jolene explained. "It's a huge Internet database and forum, kind of like YouTube or Reddit. You make an account, you can make videos, store deck recipes and trading lists in notes, receive feedback, and each time you duel in a major event it will be recorded live and broadcast on your channel. You can even gain followers."

JC – DistressedDuelist  
Yukio – E-Hunter  
Jolene – IvyCat  
Maya - ?

"Who are you Maya?"

Maya walked to the computer. She didn't know. She hit a book with her foot. She picked it up. It was an old, dusty edition of _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_. Judging by its broken spine and crumpled pages it was overused even compared to all the pamphlets everywhere. This was all so new. Anxiousness, but at the same excitement. The inferi whispered in her ears again.

Maya shrugged and cast the die. She registered her new Duelist ID.

Zarathustra


	3. Duel 3 - First Steps

**Duel 3 – First Steps**

Maya stooped low with her net wipes, carefully massaging the cards and game cartridges inside the display case. Casey, the store manager, couldn't bear to see his precious collections tainted in any way, even through too much cleanliness. This was Game Stop in Manhattan Mall, Maya's best odd job. She thought "best" because working in a nice mall sure beat staying in the dirty slum school. It's disadvantage? No instrument. No portfolio.

But it was a beautiful place here, a vibrant, fun atmosphere. Two boys were duking it out in a Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament held in the store. The mall gave this electrifying feeling, like some great, extravagant competition of an intricate strategy game, like inside a difficult maze full of riddles, ghosts, monsters, traps, where all players would match the limits of their wits and imagination to make it through. Like the metropolis, like how she imagined the inside of skyscrapers, where anyone who was anyone gathered. Like Broadway! Like the dueling world!

Well, the cream of it. People where Maya lived just dueled on the street or in the schoolyard or in a basketball court. That's where Maya saw JC and Yukio duel once. – JC totally creamed him – Where the highest prize was fifty dollars, a nice album maybe. Nothing. The best card at Game Stop cost a whooping **$500**. No wonder JC was crazy. There was no way to climb up, almost as if – A commercial break on the nearby television.

_Melodramatic synthetic strings with a rap beat behind play in the background. "When you duel..." A young man of pasty white skin, oiled black hair, wearing an expensive suit steps outside an immaculate penthouse apartment and descends down his skyscraper castle. "When things get tough..." He emerges from the garage below in a powerful, sleek jet-black car, plowing through the city. "The tough get going!" – Cut to mid-duel with a comically degenerate drag queen and black thug in a strip club. Buff friends wearing the same suit as the young man emerge and take his side. "SEIZE THE POWER OF CHOAS!" The young man triumphantly plays Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning and slaughters his opponents. Skimpy women with glazed eyes fawn and gyrate over him. He shows his epic card, blazing in front of him, waiting to be grabbed by the viewer. "Chaos, the power of a true duelist!" _

_A girl with rosy cheeks and immaculate hair and clothes playfully and quizzically puts a finger on her pink, shiny lips. She stands in a mall that looks more like a supersized toyshop. Cutesy, quirky bells and electrical sounds dint in the background. "Being a duelist sometimes requires making some pretty…" She stares at the options around her: a pastel coloring for an academy duel disk, a novel outfit, a Kuriboh plushy. "Choosy decisions." A wimpy young man with a high-pitched voice joined her side. "How about this?" He presents her a Harpy Structure Deck. "Sometimes you gotta' be a bad girl." – Cut to a duel scene. Three harpies in rocky, forest setting join together in a whirlwind and destroy an assortment insect, beast, rock, and fiend monsters, eradicating the forest in the process, leaving behind a scorched, glittering plain of land, as scrubbed clean as the mall._

_Comforting, kitsch guitar music plucks in the background. A beautiful, bright meadow is shown. A kindly, middle aged man with a gentle voice says, "There were times when I didn't know I was or where I was going." His younger self sits on a bleak gray city bridge while strings joined in on the swelling music. "I had to ask questions and find a direction. Fortunately, the direction found me." A sun broke through the horizon and in light the scene transitioned to bustling, but pleasant office scene, crystal pure, white. "In I2 we produce quality work, have excellent managers," The man appeared with his wife and two children beside a large SUV, "and give a happy, healthy, quality life to all." The scene once more became a bleak night. The family got into their SUV and drove to a huge building. "I2: Industrial Illusions, it's the only choice." _

Not too far away there was a McDonalds. Inside sat a golem just awoken from his millennia old slumber, a mountain made of flesh. He made JC look absolutely minuscule. His haircut and sideways cap made his head look like a pencil butt. Wrapped around his Xtra Large Coke™ were several wet cards, prized weapons of his defeated opponents, taped together. He was the mighty VolcanoMan, champion of his domain, the man who caused JC such ire a few days ago.

His face glued to its food, the golem reached into the toxic wasteland in front of him and stuffed a Big Mac™ into his mouth and chewed.

Sickly, weak pulsating noises…

Sickly, weak pulsating noises…

Sickly, weak pulsating noises…

Sean "Phoenix" Slade gazed at his audience with a quiet confidence. A throng of duelists who gathered round to see him as the center axis. An emerging giant, Phoenix recently graduated from New York Academy with flying colors, and had since then laid waste to one tournament after the other. The State Championship was his and the Nationals were just a breadth away. And it showed in his proud uniform. He wore a white academy long coat, the sign of a student in the top caste, adorned with the stars and chains of a champion, customized by him to look like Magneto, his favorite comic book character.

Phoenix was short, gaunt young man with pasty white skin and an angular face. Both his short sculpted, spiky hair and thick contact lenses were colored bubblegum pink. Two large men, wearing dark glasses and dark green suits, flanked themselves behind him as bodyguards. He stood squarely in the middle of mall's ground floor, now a raised dueling platform. Twin huge loud speakers blared out generic rock music. Huge holographic flames blazed in a huge vortex on the stage and a golden phoenix majestically rose from the maelstrom in a dazzling display. The whole presentation took about five minutes.

Maya was just ending her shift when the huge display caught her attention.

Greetings duelists! I welcome you all to this special gathering. The dueling world is not what it used to be. We have abandoned the true duelist and have become tainted by darkness. A true duelist does not cheat during a duel. A true duelist does not steal or pirate cards and gear from our stores. A true duelist does stake money or other antis. A true duelist never backs down from a duel. A true duelist never disrespects his many friends. A true duelist is never alone.

Phoenix paced back and forth, his hands in his pockets, flapping his elbows, gathering momentum. There was electricity in the air. The audience was in rapt attention.

Many of you make weak excuses to be abandon your honor of the duelist. You think you can just be free to do whatever you want with no accountability for your actions. Maybe I will steal this card at the store one time, or maybe I will run out a challenge so no one is looking. Well, I have news for you. You are of the darkness and have evil in your heart. You no longer are of the light and since you are no longer of the light you cannot be good people. You do not love and you cannot love because you have no love in your heart. You disrespect the memory of Yugi and the other legendary duelists. You can no longer call yourselves duelists!

Those without the light are forever swallowed into the darkness, into the shadow realm, wandering hopelessly for all eternity. This isn't just some fairy tale to scare you into obeisance. Evil duelists would challenge Yugi in the dark game and received their punishment and countless of duelists who became wicked would fall into a coma in an alleyway or some other rat hole. They arrived there by the bad choices they made in life and were judged thusly. Coincidence? I don't think so.

The tension in the face of a huge, mountain-sized obese man wearing a small baseball cap next to Maya was palpable. "Uh-oh. I won some antes." He shook his head furiously. "It didn't count because they sucked… I don't wanna' end up in the shadow realm. What do I do?"

But there is hope. You will never hear this from other people, but I love you. My heart reaches out to you and I know you still have light and love in your hearts. Matthew Carter, if anything is the next Yugi. He has never lost a duel since he started playing, has always dueled honorably, and has always had the back of his friends. Follow him and DIViant Bros. who sponsors him and you too can return to the light. You can be a true duelist. Burn away the darkness! Team Shining Crusaders is now in town! This is the TRUTH!

A picture of a handsome but paternally stern young man with the highest white regalia of the Academy showed on a big screen behind Phoenix. The went wild. They roared in affirmation, so deafening nothing else could be heard but their unified consent. They threw their fists in the air, chanting "YUGI! YUGI! YUGI!"

Phoenix took the complements warmly, smiling, taking the luxurious time to soak the whole scene in like a warm bath. Finally, he raised his hand to sooth them quiet.

Thank you all for listening, for taking into heart this message. We are now holding Phoenix's Challenge, a fun little duel puzzle where the winner will get $500. All you have to do is make a small donation that will go to children's hospitals around the world. Thank you for supporting us in our time of need.

The huge audience lined up in anticipation. One member after another processed through, faced the challenge, and lost. Before Maya knew anything she was already on the stage, Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning staring down at her. The huge, heavily armored soldier was one of the strongest and most iconic monsters in the game. The puzzle? To use her limited resources to get past the opponent's monster and reduce its life points to zero before the turn ended.

**Maya: 4000 || TEST: 4000**

_**Maya's hand:**_  
**-**  
**Tribute to the Doomed** (Spell Card): _Discard 1 card. Destroy 1 monster on the field.  
_**-**_  
_**Chiron the Mage** (EARTH/Beast-Warrior/Lv. 4/1800 ATK/1000 DEF): _Once per turn: You can discard 1 Spell Card to target 1 Spell/Trap Card your opponent controls; destroy that target.__  
_**-**  
**Megamorph** (Equip Spell Card): _While your Life Points are lower than your opponent's, the original ATK of the equipped monster is doubled. While your Life Points are higher, the original ATK of the equipped monster is halved._  
**-**  
**Amazoness Swords Woman** (EARTH/Warrior/Lv. 4/1500 ATK/1300 DEF): _Your opponent takes all Battle Damage that you would have taken from a battle involving this card.  
_**-**

Maya spoke to herself, her gears grinding, "Chiron and Amazoness obviously can't beat BLS. I need to remove it with Tribute. Then either monster equipped with Megamorph should win the challenge. But neither of them, even when equipped, will have enough ATK. Unless… I use Amazoness in a different way!"

"I activate **Megamorph** and equip it to none other than Black Luster Soldier!" The soldier became surrounded by a fierce lightning aura and doubled in size, looking even more intimidating than before. "I summon **Amazoness Swords Woman**! Appear!" A busty, bronze, scantily clad warrior woman manifested on the stage.

"Amazoness Swords Woman, attack Black Luster Soldier!" Maya boldly declared. _**SERRATTED SABER SLASH! **_The amazon pounced at the mighty soldier-giant as a leopard, sword drawn out for the kill –

A face down card Maya didn't see revealed itself: **Skill Drain**. The battle suspended in mid air, frozen in time briefly enough for a red aura to drain the energy away from both monsters. With Amazoness' effect negated, all the damage would go back to Maya.

With an effortless contemptuous swing of its large sword, the giant soldier cleaved the amazon in half. The shockwave from the attack threw Maya back and slammed her to the ground. Maya cursed at herself for not seeing that face down Skill Drain, but realized that even if she did there was nothing she could have done. Only then did she realize the game was rigged.

**Maya: 0 || TEST: 4000**

The bodyguards quickly came by to scoop up the mess. "It seems you didn't pay up." Phoenix said behind them. "That'll be twenty dollars."

"No, the game was rigged." Maya protested. "Even if I find the hard solution and play the winning combo the machine still has a card to prevent me from going through. There is no way to win and you designed it so to take all the money for yourself."

The audience stood for a moment in shock and then started to boo. Phoenix was appalled. "It is clear that you have come here with an agenda, an agenda to spread your lies and for your selfish purposes and wicked ways to the cost of all, even to those of children. There is nothing 'rigged' here, just your incompetence at the game. You are not a true duelist! Guards, take her entire deck and take her away!"

The bodyguards ganged up on her. Frightened and outraged, Maya tried to jump one of the guards in the face. The guard effortlessly caught Maya's hand and twisted her wrist with ease. The two guards dog piled her, burying her on the ground with their knees. They wrenched her deck and gave it Phoenix who held up high as a trophy to the jeering audience and threw it to the huge, mountain sized man, who caught it with a large, greasy hand.

There was one desperate option left. "Hey fatass!" Maya roared. "I challenge you to a duel!" The audience stopped. The mountain-sized man ascended the dueling platform. His huge, intimidating body could now be entirely seen. "You talkin' to me? Do you have any idea who I am? I am VolcanoMan, mall champion. You must either have balls or be stupid to challenge me in my domain! What's your rank?"

"I'm Zarathustra and…" Maya paused. "I don't have a rank."

The entire audience, including Phoenix and VolcanoMan burst into laughter. "I'm surprised anyone would be want to duel you, you ugly and obnoxious dyke." Volcano guffawed. "No wonder you got floored today. Zero out of ten. Wouldn't bang. It's not like you have a deck to duel me with anyway."

"Then we duel for our decks. If I win, I take your entire deck. If I lose, you take mine."

"Pffft!" Volcano sneered. "I already have the prize right here. There is no point pipsqueak. You probably never won a single duel in your life. Challenge denied! I only accept challenges from big duelists."

"So you are a coward? I thought you were this big guy and I was a little ant you could squash at any moment. A true duelist does not run away from battle. Duelists who do end up dead in alleyways, swallowed into the shadow realm for eternal torment. Do you want that big guy?"

Volcano froze in fear, still as a snow capped mountain. He violently shook his head. "Challenge accepted! What can I say? I like beating Water Duelists because they put up no fight, but it seems you're an exception."

Phoenix ordered the guards to release Maya and hand her her deck. Maya and VolcanoMan then faced off. The crowd buzzed in expectation and cameras hovered into place to record the duel live for the whole dueling world to see online.

**Zarathustra: 4000 || VolcanoMan: 4000**

ZARATHUSTRA – _Draws her first card and reads her hand carefully_. "I summon **Mermaid Knight** in attack mode!" _Under the dazzling white lights and whirring sounds of the holographic systems, the amazonian mermaid wielding a saber appears. _(ATK 1500)"I set two cards face down. Turn end."_  
_

VOLCANOMAN – "That's it? What a weak move. Suits a half-pint like you." _Draws._ "I summon **Cyber Dragon**!" _A long and thick cybernetic serpent manifests. _(ATK 2100) "Because I don't have any monsters on my field I can special summon this bad boy. But there's more. I tribute Cyber Dragon to summon **Mobius the Frost Monarch**!" _Cyber Dragon disappears in a vortex on the floor and is a towering, apish beast ironclad in icy blue armor takes its place. _(ATK 2400)

"When Mobius is summoned it destroys two spell or trap cards!" _The monarch waves its hand in a stormy blizzard Zarathustra's two cards are blown away. She grimaces. He sneers. _"Go Mobius, smash the ugly, obnoxious dyke's dyke monster! _**BLIZZARD CRUSHER! **__Mobius pounds Mermaid Knight to the ground, crushing her. Zarathustra winces at the destruction of her monster and the total clearing of her field, much to Volcano's delight_. (LP 4000 3100)

"Now I activate **Foolish Burial**. I select one monster in my deck and sent it to the graveyard." _He proceeds and dumps one monster, sneering. He followed every step to complete his plan. She doesn't stand a chance!_ "And I end my turn."

The audience cheered, doubly so since Zarathustra offended them.

ZARATHUSTRA – _Draws and ponders her hand carefully. Her forehead grows moist… Her arms and legs freeze… Icy drops… _"I set one monster face down and one card face down." _Two large, holographic cards the size of her body manifests. _"Turn end."

VOLCANOMAN – _Grits his teeth together. For a second his face is green in a spasm of nausea._ "I can't believe you didn't give up yet. Stupid little duelists like you should disappear. I activate **Treeborn Frog's **effect. If have no spell or trap cards on my field my little froggy revives." _He takes a card out of his graveyard, a dark compartment inside the duel disk and places it on the portable tray. A small, leaf green frog with budding wings and a small appears. _(DEF 100)_  
_

"Now I tribute my Treeborn Frog to summon **Grandmarg the Rock Monarch**!" _The leaf green frog disappears and another apish beast, this time clothed in earth brown armor, towers in its place. _(ATK 2400)"When this monarch is summoned it destroys any face down card I choose." _Granmarg rasies a boulder with one arm and smashes Zarathustra's face down monster. Volcano imperiously waves his hand. _"Grandmarg, attack her! Wipe her out! _**GRANITE CRUSHER!**___

ZARATHUSTRA – "I activate my face down card: **Call of the Haunted**! With it I revive **Mother Grizzley!**" _An eerie spirit ball floats out of her graveyard and becomes a whole physical being: a large, teal-colored bear. _(ATK 1400)_ Granmarg's fist collides with the bear. _(LP: 3100 2100) "When Mother Grizzly is destroyed by battle, I can summon any WATER monster with 1500 or less ATK from my deck, and I choose another **Mother Grizzly**!" _A second bear materializes to replace the first._

VOLCANOMAN – "Psst! How dare you defy me! Mobius, crush the second Mother Grizzly!" _The monarch's fist collides, shattering the bear instantly. _(LP: 2100 1100)

ZARATHUSTRA – "I summon **Star Boy **with Mother Grizzly's effect!" _An alien creature, a_ _red starfish with one leering eye and large tentacles underneath it, is summoned. _(ATK 550)

VOLCANOMAN – _Wrinkles his face in contempt. _"I end my turn."

ZARATHUSTRA – _Is in relief. She smiles. _"Your monarchs are strong, but I finally found a way to beat them. I will overpower them with monsters even stronger so you can't fight back." _Draws card._ "Even better yet, I don't have to tribute. Normally, my monster is Level 5, but because the Field Spell I just drew, I can summon it as a Level 4. I play **A Legendary Ocean**!" _Slides her spell card in the special sixth slot of the duel disk. The field around them transforms into a new environment!_

[_A sunken city beneath a shallow sea. Fish dancing in the sunlight above and the decaying buildings below. Everything is tainted in underwater colors of deep blue, turquoise, and aquamarine._]

"Now I summon my aforementioned monster, **Gigagagio**!" _A large, bulky, and ominous reptilian soldier was summoned. _"Its ATK is originally 2450, but with A Legendary Ocean it's ATK increases by 200 and with Star Boy in play its ATK increases by 500."

VOLCANOMAN – _Astounded. _"B-But that means!"

ZARATHUSTRA - "3150 ATK. Gigagagio, kill Mobius! _**GRAVITY FIST! **__The reptilian jumps on Mobius and dents its armor with its fist, then crushes its head with its hands. The monarch groans and falls to the ground, beaten. Volcano lurches back, as if he himself was hit. _(LP: 4000 3950)

"This is all you are, VolcanoMan. You're nothing more than a litmus test. You continuously summon big and powerful monsters but only up to a certain limit. Once I reach past the small size of 2400 ATK you can churn out as many monarchs as you can but you'll never stop me." – _Volcano stands dumbstruck in shock, mortified._ – "I change Star Boy to defense mode and set one card face down. Turn end."

VOLCANOMAN – _Draws. His fear turns into ridicule. _"HA! You thought you could beat the monarchs! Well, see about this! I resurrect Treeborn Frog and tribute it to summon my first and best monarch, **Zaborg the Thunder Monarch**!" _Another huge apish brute materializes, this time in gold and white armor with the shoulders joined by an electrical conduit_. (ATK 2400) "When Zaborg is summoned it destroys one monster on the field!" _The thunder kind forged a thunderbolt in its hands and threw it at Gigagagio, incinerating it to ashes._

ZARATHSTRA_ – Grits her teeth in despair._

VOLCANOMAN – "You idiot! You thought you could just overpower monarchs with mere ATK! You forgot one important thing you n00b! Monarchs' special abilities activate when they're summoned! You can summon the most powerful monster to the field, but as soon as I summon a monarch BAM your dead!"

"You're nothing more than some decadent run-of-the-mill punk who's full of herself! You're probably a junky too! You think you're some genius groundbreaker who will take the world by storm! But it's time to teach you some REALITY! You are the dark horde that seeks to take away the integrity and freedom of duelists! You and duelists like you are an evil set to enslave us all!" 

_Volcano throws his fists into the air. The crowd follows him._ "We are the strong and the few! We are Yugi's brothers and we shall keep the world clean from darkness! Our strength and brotherhood is something those of the darkness will never understand! For duelists' honor! For duelists' glory! For duelists' freedom!" _The crowd cheeres maniacally._

ZARATHUSTRA –"For one of the 'strong and the few' you sure have a large following. Do you have any sisters in that bar of yours or is it for 'male bonding' only?"

VOLCANOMAN – "OMG STFU! I'm so sick and tired of you, you ugly, obnoxious dyke! Time to put you down once and for all! I activate **Monster Reborn**! I choose **Gagagagio**! Reborn the monster!" _A large sapphire ankh levitates above the field. It shines and burns with red light and resurrects Zarathustra's reptilian warrior with its energies. _

ZARATHUSTRA – "Reborn the monster? That doesn't even make any sense!"

VOLCANOMAN – "SHUT UP! Go my monsters! Finish off my opponent and win the duel for me!" _Zaborg shoots bolts from the blue. Star Boy explodes from the impact. Grandmarg and Gigagagio jump with their combined strength and pummel Zarathustra out of the stage. She falls hard on the ground and slides to the edge of the arena, a hair's length short of falling out. _

_VolcanoMan thrust his fists into the air to the cheering crowd. "_YUSS! I WON!"


	4. Duel 4 - The First Idol Shatters

**Duel 4 – Counterattack! The First Idol Shatters**

Volcano chuckled to himself, content in his victory. He retained his place and hers. Now he could go back to eating at McDonalds.

Maya lay cold, stone still on the ground, her left arm and left leg dangling precariously from the edge of the platform. It was as if she was on a steel beam hundreds of feet in the air, a small push away from a plummet to her death.

A voice rang in her head, "Come on! Get up! You can still do it! You have to do something! Even if you have 1 life point, fight! Live!" Jolene's voice!

Another voice, "Don't let that two-bit punk beat you! That's all he is, a small loud dog!" Yukio's voice!

Water on her face. The nausea slowly faded away. The voices became a rope. Maya squirmed and grabbed it. Slowly, and in pain, she picked herself up. First she dragged herself away from the edge until she was safe. Then she was on her knees, breathing heavily, her body hot and moist. Her knees shaking slightly, she finally got to her feet.

"WHAT!?" Volcano screamed, his eyes widening open in fear before shrinking into his seething face. "YOU'RE STILL UP!? YOU SHOUT BE DEAD BY NOW!"

Maya held up a card for him to see. "I activated this trap when your monsters attacked me. Nutrient Z. I gained 4000 life points just before they were subtracted, leaving me with 50 life points left."

Volcano clenched and shook his fist in frustration. "You ugly –"

"Obnoxious dyke? I know already. Can you please come up with another insult?" Maya turned and saw none other then Jolene and Yukio themselves in the huge throng. "Where the hell were you Jolene, at divorce court with Yukio for the fiftieth time?"

"Shut up!" Jolene shouted. "You made an amazing move! Now roast this marshmallow so hard we'll eat smores after the duel!"

Yukio thrust his fist in the air. "Kick this hyperactive lobotomized egotistical overinflated baboon's red ass back in Phoenix's cunt where you found him!"

**Zarathustra: 50 || VolcanoMan: 3950  
**

VOLCANOMAN – "Pfft! Whatever! You ugly – I set two cards face down. And my turn is over." _Two cards appear facedown in front of him. _

ZARATHUSTRA – _Draws. She has only one card in her hand. She looks a little shaky but smartens up. _"I will find a way to beat you." _She says more to herself than to her opponent._ "The answer is somewhere. In my deck, maybe in yours." I set one card face down. Turn end." _A single card appeared in front of her.  
_

VOLCANOMAN – "You'll find a way to beat me? Oh yeah! I'll put you down once and for all. I tribute my Zaborg the Thunder monarch to summon **Zaborg the Thunder Monarch**!" _The first monarch in gold and white armor vanishes and is replaced by a second one. It gathers electricity in its hands unto a thunderbolt and hurls it at – being no monster to hit on Zarathustra's field, it hits Gigagagio instead. The muscle bound reptilian soldier screams before being completely disintegrated. _

_Volcano stares, baffled, his eyes wide open_. "B-But how! What the hell happened! This doesn't make any sense!"

ZARATHUSTRA – "So, this is it, huh?"

VOLCANOMAN – "What do you mean?"

ZARATHUSTRA – "This is how small you really are. You're mind is a simple program. Your entire strategy is nothing more than a basic loop of three commands:

resurrect Treeborn Frog

tribute for Monarch

activate Monarch effect and then attack

But after this small rehearsal, nothing else is left. You duel like you eat at McDonalds, sitting in a small, dark hole and eating whatever Big Macs™ you order from Phoenix. Nothing more. Brainless: a blind and deaf little lamb who only exists for fattening and slaughter. Your entire life is eating at McDonalds."

_The audience roars in indication, repeatedly chanting, _ "SHUT UP NIGGER SLUT! SHUT UP NIGGER SLUT! EVIL! EVIL! YOU HATE THE LIGHT! YOU HATE THE LIGHT!" 

_"_Christ!" _Yukio shouts through the mob. _"This is getting ugly!"

VOLCANOMAN – _Wincing as if punched in the face, small squeaks come from between his teeth. _"We'll see who is the small, weak duelist, stupid! Monarchs, attack! Smash her, put her down once and for all!" _Both monsters leap, their fists withdrawn for the kill._

ZARATHUSTRA – "I activate **Tornado Wall**!" _Some of the waters surrounding them separate from the rest of the ocean scene, whirling and twisting until they form vortexes. The monarchs are pushed back by their force and fall back on Volcano's field._ "As long as A Legendary Ocean is in play, this trap card will keep negating all damage you try to bring to me." _Seething with even more frustration, Volcano ends his turn._

ZARATHUSTRA – "I draw. I set another card face down."

VOLCANOMAN – _Squeaking in rage._ "Monarchs, attack!" _His flunkies jump for another attack but are brushed away by the watery barrier._

ZARATHUSTRA – _Draws._ "I set one more card face down. Turn end."

VOLCANOMAN – _Draws. _"Yes! I found a way to beat you! I tribute Grandmarg the Rock Monarch to summon **Kuraz the Light Monarch**!" _The apish golem vanishes and a golden-colored golem takes its place. Its armor is like Zaborg's except it shines and radiates light rather than conducts thunder. _(ATK 2400)"When Kuraz is summoned I can destroy two cards you control. You get to draw two cards but I don't see you using those any time soon. Now Kuraz, destroy her Legendary Ocean and Tornado Wall!" _The monarch of light spreads it arms and both cards burn away under brilliant light._

[_Zarathustra, VolcanoMan, and the crowd are transported back to the duel arena._]

ZARATHUSTRA – "You know, you could have just targeted A Legendary Ocean. Tornado Wall would've disappeared by its effect. But then again, I'm not surprised."

VOLCANOMAN – "OMG STFU!"

ZARATHUSTRA – "You can't even swear originally, you pygmy-brained bootlicker butt-monkey bully, so full of shit you sneeze diarrhea. A simple program and that's it."

VOLCANOMAN – "NO!" _He squeals._ "You are the dark brainless horde! You are a dark duelist! We will burn you away with our light! Monarchs, attack!" _His beasts join up to smite the offender. _

ZARATHUSTRA – "I activate **Waboku**." _A gathering of priestesses materializes. They chant a spell and their white magic creates a barrier to deflect the monarch's attack. _

_Draws. _"Thank you for giving me two extra cards. You can only duel as long as you can continue your loop, so I will stop one of your commands. I will stop you from summoning monarchs." _She checks her strategy twice. All the cards are now gathered for use._

_She roars._ "I activate **Dark Hole**! Destroy all of his monsters!" _Volcano eeps meekly as a black vortex appears at the middle of the platform, dragging his monarchs to oblivion. _

VOLCANOMAN – "I-I activate **My Body As A Shield**!" _He stammers. _"I-I pay up some life points and my monarchs are saved!" (LP 3950 2450) _Energy sprouts from his body and forms an astral image of himself. The golem-sized ghost slips itself between the abyss and the monarchs, preventing them from being sucked in._

ZARATHUSTRA – "I counter with **Solemn Judgment**! By paying half of my life points I stop your spell!" _Three austere old sages dressed in the ancient Biblical robes grace the field with their appearances. With a chant and a judicious wave of their hands the astral form of VolcanoMan shrinks into nothing. Free from any barrier, the monarchs fall into the abyss. Volcano's field is empty._

ZARATHUSTRA – "I will beat you right now!" _She boldly declares. It is now time to be fearless. _"I remove four monsters from my graveyard to special summon two **Fenrirs**." _From the cave-like graveyard in her duel disk four ghostly spheres fly out. From the ground two puddles form and out of those puddles rise two white, snarling wolfs with icy blue eyes. _(ATK 1400) "My first Fenrir, attack him directly _**SEDITIOUS SLASH!**_ The first wolf pounces at Volcano full speed.

VOLCANOMAN – _Hyperventilates, desperate. _"I-I activate **Scapegoat**!" _Four small, fluffy, sleepy eyed sheep, all of different colors, __**Sheep Tokens**__, pop into the field. They are extremely weak, having no aggressive power. (ATK 0) _

ZARATHUSTRA – "Fine, then I'll kill your goats!" _Both wolves leap at two of the sheep and devour them instantly. _"I end my turn."

VOLCANOMAN – _He is backed in a corner. This is his only chance._ "I draw!" __

! 

A loud, shrill ring hit everyone's ears. The judge overseeing the duel blew his large, silver whistle. "That is an illegal move. " He declared. "If Fenrir successfully destroys one of your monsters in battle you cannot draw a card during your Draw Phase due to Fenrir's effect."

"Wait! Why? – Oh…"

"I can't stop you from summoning your Treeborn Frog and I can't stop you from summoning your monarchs, but I can stop you from drawing them." Maya explained, folding her arms.

His eyes looked at the only card in his hand, another Foolish Burial. It couldn't be! His mind desperately scurried for another possibility, any possibility, but the moment he laid his eyes on the only other option, a monarch he was supposed to draw, he knew he could never use and it.

VOLCANOMAN – _Shakes his head. _"No! It can't be! I resurrect Treeborn Frog with its effect!" The all-too familiar small green frog returned. "Please"_ He says to himself. _"Let there be a miracle. Let the Heart of the Cards answer me. I am a warrior of the light. I am the strong and the few. I am a good duelist and a good man, that is who the Heart of the Cards answer to."

ZARATHUSTRA – "I play **Monster Reborn** and revive **Gigagagigo**, the very monster you turned against me." _Her faithful armored lizard soldier materialized once again on her field._ "I attack Treeborn Frog and your two Sheep Tokens! Destroy them!" _The two Fenrirs pounce on and demolish the two sheep. Gigagagigo shatters Treeborn Frog with one punch._

VOLCANOMAN – _Paralyzed. He can't draw. He can't defend himself. He can't do anything. It is then that he realizes he lost. _ __

ZARATHUSTRA – _Time to move for the kill! _"This is your end. You think you are a mighty mountain but you're just a molehill, a Toys R' Us champion! Now go play with the ten year olds! Direct attack with all my monsters! Finish him!" _All three monsters strike Volcano all at once with a powerful collective blow. Volcano teeters precariously, losing his balance. TIMBER! The titan crashes to the ground, unleashing a glorious earthquake like frantic applause. _

**Zarathustra: 25 || VolcanoMan: 0**

The audience was reduced to silence, left choking in their own shock.

"And the winner of this duel is none other than our bold newcomer Zarathustra!" The judge declared. Bright lights and exploding sparkling dust erupted from the corners of the stage as generic victory fanfare erupted from the background. A stray few in the audience began to clap, slowly and cautiously, but then became more open and bold. The rest of the audience hissed and booed them and their new duelist, slashing at them with the same usual slurs. Phoenix simmered silently in a corner, his face contorted into a frightening mask of pure rage. With a hiss he vanished.

Maya tiptoed to the unconscious goliath, sprawled all over the other side. She took his deck and picked his pockets and jacket for any extra cards or money she could find and silently hopped down to the ground. Jolene rushed to her and they gave each other a quick hug – Then they stopped, realizing how embarrassing and hokey it was, let alone with Yukio watching it.

The two friends hurried back to JC's Dungeon as quickly as they could to tell him of their victory. They burst inside, panting like dogs. "Guys!" Jolene shouted. "Maya just beat VolcanoMan!"

No one paid heed. A whole new group of people gathered in front of the only computer there, with none other than JC himself sitting up front. They were on the Dueling Network on JC's channel. Displayed for all to see were videos of JC's last several duels. Maya could see they were automatically uploaded to his channel by the tournament organizers because of their extraordinary quality, unlike the other videos crowded in his channel, which were mostly his excessive and obscene rants.

JC was on a roll. "Look at that! Look at that shit right now! Look at me beat down that little kid right there! Right there! OW! Poor sucker! – Look at this! Here's my duel against a former Regional Champ! Watch me smite this Shining Crusader goon with my Master of Oz pumped up with Wild Animal Release! OW! 8000 damage right there! Goddamn I'm a sexy motherfucker!"

"Um, technically its ATK is really 7900 because – "

"SHUT UP!"

Maya prodded JC with her finger. JC swiveled his large, black, comfy chair – shaped like the throne of a James Bond supervillain. "**WHAT!?**"

"I just beat VolcanoMan, the champion of Westside Mall. It was a really tough duel but I finally came out on top."

JC laughed. "You beat a mall champion? How amusing! Here, let me give you a pat in the head! I'm so proud of you! Oh and by the way, about one tenth a portion of all your winnings goes to the team to be accessed by everyone." He yanked a handful of the cards Maya just won and took one twenty-dollar bill. "We don't have the luxury to be elitist snobs like other teams. Everyone most contribute. I know we're socialists and we hate America but that's how we roll."

Maya was too tired to fight back, too tired to even curse. She could only imagine killing him. The three of them, Maya, Jolene, and Yukio went outside the stifled, dirty, hustle and fell on the sidewalk. Jolene offered them cigarettes and they smoked. Jolene gave a few quips. Maya fired back harder. And Yukio said something funny and quirky every once in a while. The harsh, ugly colors and the harsh, ugly whines of the city just fell away until it was a dull ringing in the ears.

Now the crowd was gone they came back down. Maya opened her Zarathustra account and, surely enough, her duel with VolcanoMan was uploaded. She replayed the duel a few times, feeling good about her hard won success.

JC now loomed behind them. "Actually, that's not a bad duel. Smart handling of the situation. So how many followers do you have?"

Maya looked at a small corner of the screen.

"You have only one follower? HA HA HA HA!"

"Look who's talking. You have like what, twelve?"

"_Twelve hundred_, mind you. So yeah, I'm a pretty impressive guy."

"Twelve hundred is not a lot." Jolene corrected. "Phoenix – that guy who conned everybody at the mall – has about five hundred thousand."

JC backed off dramatically. "WHOA! WHOA THERE! Phoenix is another story altogether. We'll deal with him later."

Just to compare Maya searched some other duelists' channels. Yukio; E-Hunter, had 10 followers. Jolene; IvyCat, slightly better off than Maya, had 3 followers. JC; DistressedDuelist, true to his word, had about 1200. She glazed over the channels of some Shining Crusaders. Overall their counts were significantly more massive, by the thousands. VolcanoMan by comparison was an insignificant twerp, a random loser from the street. He wasn't even part of team. He had only 120 followers.

Their duel was also uploaded on his channel. Close by it was another video he himself made about their duel. Out of a morbid, sadomasochistic curiosity she went to it just to see what he had to say. It was so jaw-droppingly stupid she could only listen to portions of it.

**BULLIED BY DARK DUELIST**

[…]So today I lost to a dark duelist who just kept bullying me. She was such a nasty BITCH. […] She kept calling me names. She kept trying to intimidate me. She kept trying to make me feel small, stupid, and dumb man. […] She had her dyke lesbian friend to cheer her own with her "Grrrl Power!" mantras along with her pussy emasculated boyfriend she carries around with her like an old purse. What fucking hoes! Those self-centered, whiny, selfish, ignorant bitches! Those cunts need to give that guy's ball's back and he needs to GTFO of the relationship but bang those hoes into submission first! […]

The comments, if you could call them that, were even more stupid:

2BWhite  
Sadly this seems to be more and more prevalent in the dueling world today. More and more kids are becoming like this. diserespect their parents. joining gangs. doing drugs. If only they obeyed Yugi and read their Instruction Manuals at school.

btw more and more women are becoming unwomanly. They are become so uppity lately. black women especially. women need to be re-institutionalized to re-understand NATURE

5 Upvotes

cdzzzzzzr  
That Zarathustra… just mediocre… bad… lack of imagination… lack of creativity… mediocrity… mediocre dueling…

warrior4TRUTH  
I can't believe such a vile little bitches could subject you to such horrors VM. Stay strong brother! We are the strong and the few! Together we will make the world the world light again.

2 Upvotes

Maya was ready to punch the computer screen but she fortunately had a small amount of restraint left. "Seriously, they think I'm the bully but he was the one trying to beat me down all the time. He was the one who kept throwing slurs at me. Yet he was the one being bullied?" She wanted to pull her hair.

"More like being butthurt if you ask me." Jolene snarked. "Let's go eat ice cream. This was a fun, eventful day."

"I can't. I need to run errands with my dad tomorrow and he wants me back home before dark. I have to go very soon. Did you do the Calculus and Physics homework? Because I did all of my Literature, History, and French homework. We'll swap as we usually do." Maya once more checked her channel. Only one follower. But that was all she needed.

futurehero  
You did a really did a great job there. Pulling up from near defeat and winning with only 50 LP left is not something many duelists can do. Most people collapse at anything lower than 500. I'm just 15 and you really inspired me to start dueling and fighting for what I believe in.


	5. Duel 5 - Among Fish As Among Men

**Duel 6 – Among Fish As Among Men**

Phoenix laid on his back, sprawled on a large luxurious couch in his Obelisk Blue dorm, a magnificent and spacious room that more resembled his three penthouse apartments. Correction: his dorm was itself a penthouse apartment. A massive golden chandelier bought by his father hung high above, slowly rotating, lightening all the dimensions of this glass temple of Babylon.

Phoenix was the center of his universe and spiraling out were a magnificent collection of modern style furniture of plastic, metal, and glass. Dearly protected under a glass vault rested all of his trophies he won from tournaments around the country and plenty of space remained for the world. All his uniforms, costumes, and duel disks hung inside a wardrobe as big as JC's entire basement. Hidden in secret vaults underneath his creamy brown mahogany desk laid his decks and their prize cards, only to be wielded by the highborn and not the ugly, motley knaves who groveled at his feet last Saturday.

The young prince had everything he could want but something was missing. His big screen TV blared and babbled meaninglessly of some football game. A feeling crept up on him, a feeling like the blur of sound from the TV yet dark and cold: an abyss of hollow images. The dark skinned girl with unkempt hair and her destruction of her opponent emerged from his memory and the whole room became dark. Every luxury surrounding him started to decay and stink and ring hollow. All his wealth and entitlements were given to him by his father, not earned. All of his struggles and victories were easily won. All the broken cards simply fell to his lap. And with these facts Phoenix the Great Duelist meant nothing. His crowd of thousands upon thousands of fans, turned their backs and vanished. He was now alone, with no one to see him or appreciate him. No one to reach to him.

His cell phone's alarm clock abruptly rang. It was time. He got up and shoved the dark skinned girl down. Vile little bitch. She should have been deported to whatever Arab country she came from. Phoenix arrived to the Obelisk Blue Dorm antechamber, a room larger and more lavish than his dorm. In the center stood the top academy student in his beautiful white uniform, stiff as an idol.

"You still like to hide away in your dorm, Sean?" Matthew asked coldly.

"Me? Goodness no!" Sean exclaimed with a smile. "I was actually promoting my team in the city the other day to spread the good cause. So where have you been?"

"A worthy thing to do for a true duelist." Matthew commented. "And as for me, a triumph in the State Championship in California. So how about you?"

"In the Times Square Championship a duelist by the name of DistressedDuelist, real name Jeffrey Cade (or JC), outed MadDog, one of my crusaders and now..." He paused awkwardly, looking queasy. "The ex-Regional Champ. JC ultimately didn't win the tournament but the humiliation can't go unnoticed."

"So it's just revenge?"

"Well of course not. Ridiculous! As I'm sure you know all too well, dueling is one percent winning and ninety-nine percent performance and messaging. Likewise, JC didn't just beat MadDog he also fought against everything MadDog and my team stands for; honor, loyalty, faith, hope, charity, obedience. And he kept raving how Yugi is nothing but a cheat and that all of Yugi's struggles and triumphs are just a made up story to indoctrinate people into a fascist consumerist culture or whatever.

I know in my heart, in my heart of hearts, that it's all real; that everything Yugi did when he walked on this earth is fact. Yugi gives all duelists a guide not only to dueling but also to life. Without him the very spirit of being a true duelist will die out and the metagame will go out of control. JC is not only threatening my team but the Duel monsters game itself."

"I get it. Business is business." Matthew shrugged. "One leak eventually destroys the whole dam. You have every right to defend your team and your profits."

"Well, of course I do, I mean, it only makes sense. My agents investigated this JC character." Sean produced a thick pamphlet full of papers. "He was born on February 20, 1985 in Queens. He later moved downtown and started going to East Side Community High. It has a good reputation but some people are too broken to be changed. JC is a wild personality who likes to rattle the cage for attention. Soon he gathered other miscreants to assemble his little club of misanthropes: Yukio Fugiwara, born October 23, 1986 in Cardiff, expelled from his old school for constantly getting into fights. Jolene Summers, born September 13, 1987 in downtown New York, useless stoner. Marina Bozovic, born December 16, 1986 in Belgrade, petty thief."

Matthew gestured in approval. "Good work."

"One more thing." Phoenix continued. "I met one of JC's henchman, Marina, during my Team Shining Crusaders Promotion Tour. She beat this guy called Volcano… something, I don't remember. She crashed that party a bit."

"What did she look like?" This was the first sign of interest Matthew showed all evening.

"She looked a bit like a punk. Short, dyed, unkempt hair. Bad makeup. Black skirt. Combat boots."

"I think I dueled her once." Matthew looked as if he had forgotten to get groceries. "She came very late for the entrance exams and demanded I duel her. She played OK but rushed in on her attacks, maybe because of the stress. I beat her in three rounds and she threw a hissy fit. She seems like one of those impetuous and moody people you'd rather not be around. Either way, what do you want? You're trying really hard to convince me of something. What is it?"

Phoenix leaned closer to Matthew, carefully keeping his head bowed low. "In all of New York your family is the only one bigger than mine. I therefore humbly request your approval so I may take action against these miscreants to protect not just my team but the stability and character of the entire dueling world."

Matthew waved his hand is if brushing off a fly. "It's unnecessary to ask me for anything. Do what you wish with your team."

Phoenix sung with jubilation in his head. The tricky waters have been maneuvered. "Thank you very much, my friend." Without hesitation he dialed up his agent. "It's Phoenix. You know the four duelists you searched out? Have them censored."

Father and daughter sat jam-packed next to each other in a train of countless faces in one of the many subways of New York City. The dirty steel train roared, buckled, and bobbed wildly as it streaked underground. Father checked his bag of files for the hundredth time today. All the credentials were there: His resume, his legal citizenship, immaculate records of his previous jobs, even his university thesis. Now he held in front of him a blue moon opportunity to reclaim, in this failing economy, a job with the fraction of the lucre and benefits as his old one as biochemist. He would take no chances. There was no room for error, absolutely none. All this raced in his head but if one looked at him they would only see a cold mask.

Maya, his daughter, was not here. She seemed to stare fixedly at a point far away, her eyes slightly widened, her limbs tense and fidgeting as if trying to break away from chains. Father shook his head. She looked demented and Maya in one her crazed trances were the last thing he wanted right now, but he was no mood to reprimand her in front of a million strangers. At the very least he could dig into her and hold her in place.

Father gently nudged her. "What are you thinking about?"

Maya shook her head.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing. Leave me alone."

"Look, I want to know." He felt like he was prying open a clam. Could he please know at least one thing that went inside his daughter's head! They were completely lost with each other. Then it struck him. Don't force the turtle out. Encourage it come out. "When I was young my father would sometimes take me fishing and –"

"Not interested."

"_Hold on." _He rebuked sternly enough to get her attention. "My father would talk about the fish of the sea as if they were people, kind of like in your old Dr. Seuss book. I know you like riddles and games, so I made some for you to figure out. A schooling of suspicion is the best schooling. A beautiful fish is always a poisonous fish. A flounder is a fool; it only looks one way. Never trust the flying fish; they can never escape the ocean that bore them. Sharks are your friends; they eat all the bad fish."

"If beautiful fish are the most poisonous fish, then why puffer fish and lion are fish the most poisonous? Flounders look from the bottom up, so why does it matter? Flying fish escape the ocean not out of cowardice, so what's the problem?"

"Are you now giving riddles to my riddles?"

"No, I'm just questioning your questions."

"Well," Father sighed. "Beauty is usually a lure into a trap so it makes sense that deadly fish be beautiful. Flounders are fools because it is foolish to see things from only one direction and… How's another riddle. Among all large schools there lies a fisherman who regularly fishes to dine on them. If you don't see a fisherman above you, look among the fish beside you."

"If the fisherman is really a fish than it simply lacks the sight or ability to go fishing at all, doesn't it?"

Father threw his arms in the air. Like chasing a ghost! "Joke's on you. All you did was show why you need to put your mind on other things. We will arrive at the DIViant Bros. company soon. Get ready. We will be meeting the CEO himself, a very rare opportunity if anything. Be at your best behavior. You may even meet his son. No room for error."

"Just so you can use me as a pawn to seal your ties with the upper class." Maya pouted.

"Yes. I'm a horrible evil bastard but you know as well as I do there's no other way."

In a matter of minutes they were in the wide plane that was the antechamber, glowing with the warm colors of bronze, cedar, and alabaster. They quickly ran into the restrooms to change from their usual clothes into their newly rented suits and they soared the elevator into an employment office high above. The office was a fishbowl to Maya. Everything was so straight, steely, cold, and clean it was unreal.

A short man dressed in an expensive, refined suit and with thick, black hair overgelled in a fashion disturbingly familiar to father's, entered into the small office. He shook father's hands with a large, congenial smile. "Hello Mr. Aleksandar Bozo…"

"Bozovic." Father pronounced for him.

"Right. I'm Derrick Slade, the CEO of this company. And you are…" He turned to Maya.

Father gestured to her. "My daughter, Marina."

Maya blew a grin out of proportion just for him. Mr. Slade shook her hand. "Nice to meet you. Do you duel? You must have heard about my son, Sean. He's a real expert at the game. He keeps winning tournament after tournament. Opponent's just roll right in front of him."

"I agree." Maya said. "Sean is indeed the example of a true duelist. He takes risks. He sticks his neck out rather than relying on cronies. He fights people bigger than he is and uses difficult and original decks. He holds his principles above that of the crowd, no matter how much pressure is put on him. He is honest and charitable. He regularly donates to children's hospitals, which is a very noble thing to do with his wealth. His hard work shows in his duels. He really did pull up those bootstraps to get to the level he is now. There is not a gram of deceit in him. In a world full of conmen and thugs it relieves me to know there are people like Sean for people like me to aspire to."

Father faked a smile. "That's enough."

"No, no. It's fine." Mr. Slade replied. "There's nothing wrong with Ms. Marina showing enthusiasm for her favorite duelist. Uh-hum!" He turned his attention to father. "Mr. Bozovic, I think we should talk about hiring you. You do understand that this company's line of work is the management and ownership of intellectual property on the Internet. Your experience in biochemistry seems a bit off the mark here but according to your resume you have great expertise in not only that line of work but also in other fields, such as computer hardware. Let's talk this through." Mr. Slade led father into a boardroom behind them with a panorama view of the city outside and closed the door.

Maya was left to her own designs. She pulled out her notebook and began to work on her music, her violin solo piece. With her inspiration died down she was able to approach the music cerebrally and build its structure. She found her improvised stream of thought in her earlier pages, the sprightly green and volcanic red branches strung together into one chord, one logic.

Here were the subjects of the piece itself and the clash between these two characters would drive the music. The baby wakes up and climbs upward, the old man falls into the abyss. A garden maze with many strange flowers hiding a few thorns, a ring of fire with open flames. The elfish, puckish flower spirit fights the ghastly beast in the lake of fire. A twisting vine and a burning arrow, a comedy of manners and a tragety, craftiness and brute force, coy and cruelty. The road, the journey was set. – Almost. She added her sparse, gray, skeletal crows and magpies perched on the blasted tree from the beginning for an introduction. – Click!

She found the building blocks, the core from which the whole plant will germinate; a small cell in the key of D.

D C# F# A

She took the rough frame and carved the melodies, twisting them, bending them to follow the theme. The cell built both characters, showing that beneath the skin they had the same skeleton. She spun, cut, took apart, built, explored the phrases to grow the logic, the development of the cell. Every part related in the unity, and it started to sow itself together. As Maya wrote more intensely the whole plant began to take form. It was adequate. The trunk and branches were hard but supple, fragments branching out, giving enough freedom in the form so the plant could breathe but not too much or it would fall apart. – And she decided her victor, green beats red, gentleness sooths anger and the piece ends happily.

**Intro ****A ****B ****A ****B ****A**

She estimated the piece would last from about ten to fifteen minutes. Substantial. Now it was all about scribbling the whole thing down. There! Now just to test it out a bit with the piano or viola! It was now only a matter of making a few tweaks and soon she would have another bright piece to add to her portfolio!

She couldn't relax. Her old cell phone and she was forced to pick it up. "Hello?"

JC: I have to talk to you! Something really terrible happened!

MAYA: You now got kicked out of Burger King?

JC: No this is serious! My Dueling Network account got deleted! Everything is lost! My videos, my duels, my followers! Everything's gone! Not only that, but everyone else's too! You, me, Jolene, Yukio; it's all gone!

MAYA: Damn!

JC: I have no idea who did this! I don't know what to do! Next Friday all four of us meet up in my basement! We've got to do something!

It was as if the chair Maya was sitting on just vanished. Maya fell back, her elation instantly froze and plummeted into her gut as a hail ball. _Oh no… Great! Another problem!_


	6. Duel 6 - Conjurers and Scientists

**Duel 6 – Conjurers and Scientists: The First Clash**

The gloom of the four comrades heightened the darkness and dust in JC's dungeon. JC himself was bellowing out another long-winded rant which, to spare the reader, will not be written down. Everyone stank of outrage, fear, and resentment that was made even thicker by the small space it stewed in.

"Cowards!" JC cursed in confusion. "Greedy, sneaking, rotten cowards, hiding behind the stone money-green idols of exploitation and mass debt-murder."

"Well, since our enemies are the supposed all-powerful money masters it would make sense they would use their power to their advantage, and, because tyrants are paranoid, overkill the smallest threat." Maya added.

"NO DUH!" JC shouted on top of her. "WHAT'S NEXT? THAT JET FUEL WASN'T ENOUGH TO COLLAPSE THE WORLD TRADE CENTER!"

"So now our accounts are deleted, what do we do?" Yukio asked. "You're our leader. You got us into this mess."

"Well excuse me, princess!" JC rebuked. "You joined the revolution by your own volition, citizen! This isn't the safe corporate environment you're used to! There's no contract and no warranty in my club! If you don't like it get out!"

"Wait, guys, I have an idea." Jolene suggested. "Please calm down. Phoenix is hosting one of his monthly events at the academy arena." She unfolded a large, colorful flyer from her pocket and read it aloud. "Phoenix's duel challenge event, a fun gathering for families and duelists of all ages. Music, dancing, and, the biggest event, a chance to challenge a top duelist for a grand prize of $1000."

JC shrugged. "Yeah, so."

"Well, this is an opportunity to offer a complaint to him, maybe even expose him for the censoring despot he really is." Jolene suggested.

JC laughed disparagingly. "Seriously? You honestly think he's gonna' listen to us?" He imitated a whimpering, childish voice. "Please Mr. Phoenix, can we have our channels you personally deleted back?" He went back to his normal, grating voice. "And you think that if I tell everyone Phoenix and his herd of brainwashed sheep will actually listen? No! They are beyond help, you dumb broad."

"Also, Phoenix probably wants us to complain in public so he can have an excuse to persecute us further." Maya suggested.

Yukio waved his hand dismissively. "Nah, forget it. We should do this. We're already screwed over a wet tombstone on Sunday morning so we might as well crash their party. Let's hit them in the heart anyway, loud and proud and right in the middle for everyone to see. If we do go out they'll never forget us."

Fire lit up in JC's eyes, like small, gleaming gems. "Alright, it's settled! I'll personally pwn Sean myself in the middle of his crowd of salivating cattle and sniveling sycophants! Let's do this!"

Maya mumbled. "The way to JC's heart is through his ass."

Hundreds of people gathered around the formidable domed academy building as drones of flies until the entire block was crowded beyond sight. The gang of four was effortlessly devoured by the teaming mass of duelists and non-duelists alike. Some people even spent the whole night huddled in tents. Slowly but surely the mass squeezed through the large front door. On to blazoned a huge poster of Yugi in a shining aura surrounded by some of his most famous monsters, displaying the words:

What Makes the Light is that it _Gives_

_What does that even mean? _Some time along the way Maya spotted a familiar face. It was the old bum from a few weeks ago, the same dark skin, the same dirty ruined clothes, the same haggard white hair, sitting underneath the same cornice, covered by the crowd's huge shadow. No one noticed him. Everybody was eager to get inside the massive, ostentatious building. The bum stared at Maya with piercing black eyes and Maya stared squarely back.

The vast auditorium surrounding the stadium was completely full with a massive, thick throng of people. The entire place was dark except for the bright, colorful show lights spiraling out from the arena in the center, now pushed upward by massive pistons from the pit below to above the crowd. A group of four instrumentalists, with none other than Phoenix himself at the center, played catchy soft rock tunes in the center.

_**Are you a duelist's friend,  
a true duelist's best friend?  
Do you pray every night  
for a future so bright?  
Practice the duelist's honor,  
in your private heart's space  
Practice the duelist's honor,  
in your most secret place.**_

_**Follow Nature's order;  
everyone has their place.  
For ev'ry man and girl,  
there is a perfect place.  
Follow Nature's order;  
everyone has their place.  
Those of white are from light,  
black souls fall in the race.**_

_**Dark ones invade to break us,  
inside and out to take us.  
Showing many paths to sin,  
gateways to Hell from within.  
Poor dirt with nothing to lose,  
sneak and crawl to chain us too.  
In life losers can't duel fair,  
that's why they're all down there. **_

_**Are you a duelist's friend,  
a true duelist's best friend?  
Do you pray every night  
for a future so bright?  
Practice the duelist's honor,  
in your private heart's space  
Practice the duelist's honor,  
in your most secret place.**_

There was no way Phoenix wrote this song. He must have hired a star to write it for him. Maya could tell from the clumsy and indiscriminate way he struck his chords and fingered the bridge. A recording beforehand was blaring out from the speakers. The audience jumped and screamed with Phoenix and finally died down.

JC seized the opportunity. "HEY YOU!" He shouted and jumped unto the stage. "You're the legendary Phoenix, aren't you, leader of Team Shining Crusaders, aren't you!"

Did Phoenix notice a fly? "Yes, that would be me."

"Well good!" JC then uprooted Maya, Jolene, and Yukio one by one as if they were carrots and thrust them on the stage with him. "We are Team Dark Duelists and we're here to send you to Hell for deleting our accounts. You wanna' talk about the duelist's honor, then talk about how you silence any dissent raised against you!"

JC seized the microphone and started shouting to the audience. "Phoenix is nothing but a con man out to make lifelong suckers out of you by selling you a bullshit stories! I now quote Nietzsche's _Zarathustra_, "Verily, my brothers, I say unto thee, beware the priestly types for they are vampires who sucketh on the blood of their victim chattel, draining life and vitality from the earth! The priests, in seeing the world a dirty and dark place have made it so – for that is where vampires liveth – and thus they prey on the blinded and fettered living… For have you heard, quoteth he who has come down the mountain, for God is dead!"

"Do those lines even exist?" Jolene queued.

"Since when did details and other petty things get in JC's way." Maya quipped.

"He still got the essence right and that's what matters." Yukio objected. He shrugged. "Just sayin'."

JC kept on ranting. "The song you stupid masses just listened to is the perfect example of moral blackmail and corporate elitism! The lyrics are an airport screen test for your good behavior to the corporate mainstream, and a sheepdog's warning to dissenters, 'BARK BARK! Get back in line, sheep!' It brainwashes you into accepting a lifestyle that is meant to benefit fat cats like Phoenix and his cronies! And just the song itself is the embodiment of weak, soft rock, and sanitized, dumbed-down corporate media teenage girls listen to, the antithesis of the rebellious, tragic, deep lyrics of Marilyn Manson!"

The irritated audience started to boo but JC was unfazed. "Among us mortals of slave morality, there are few of those with master morality who rise above the morality of the masses to seek truth. I have done so and when I came down to the mountains I obliged myself to tell the townsfolk. The first place I did it was in the Regional Championship and now, I will let one of my disciples tell the truth."

He seized Maya and thrust her to the center of the stage. "You tell them what needs to be said. Be the man with the burning lantern. Be Zarathustra, who you named yourself after. Set them free."

Maya's immediate instinct was to flee as fast as she could but the curling dread of being exposed to a whole audience, her friends, and a rival like Phoenix made her freeze and cuff her hands on her head. She couldn't believe this was happening. Phoenix looked amused. He raised his hands to quiet his audience. "Let her speak."

Slowly, painfully, Maya thawed and cleared her throat. "I never wanted to expound any of this but now I have no choice. Duel Monsters, not just the card game but also the story of Yugi's adventures is a story many of us grew up with. It fuels the card game and the whole franchise we consume. But none of it is true. It's all a myth. Duel Monsters never happened."

The crowd started to yell. "Bullshit! You'd better watch you're mouth or you'll end up dead in the Shadow Realm, you darksider shit! Yugi is real and a great hero who freed us from the darkness! You must be a lonely, loveless, heartless bitch to choose such a bleak path with no light to light you're way! Prove to me Yugi isn't real!"

Maya took a while to gather her thoughts, took a breath, and explained, "The Duel Monsters story is absurd on many levels. If we start from the duels themselves, it's obvious Yugi cheated in almost every duel. The first examples that come into mind are in Yugi's duel against – I think his name is Mako – where he uses Giant Soldier of Stone to attack a spell card. In another duel against Panik he uses Catapult Turtle to fly his Dragon Champion into Castle of Dark Illusions. I don't think Catapult Turtle does that. This is during Duelist Kingdom, where the rules are so informal it looks like the characters made them up as they go along. In fact this supports the argument that Duel Monsters is made up. It's like the authors were unsure about the rules and gradually sculpted them throughout time."

"Even after Duelist Kingdom the rules are still informal. Monsters can be set face up defense and Yugi still activates spell cards during his opponent's turn. The most ludicrous example is against Strings where he somehow uses Brain Control to take control of Revival Jam when it's in the process of reviving and therefore not really a prescience on the field to take control of in the first place."

"Not only that the characters' decks are completely large and impractical. They look like they have 80 card decks with every card in the game cramped in them. Their cards are highly situational and are drawn so coincidentally at the right time it has to because the duels are scripted. Besides, Yugi hardly ever dueled on his own. A stunt double dueled for him and he took all the credit. And no, it wasn't some ancient Egyptian pharaoh. Only five year olds believe in ghosts."

"He wasn't a ghost, he was the great spirit of the Millennium Puzzle!" A person in the mob shouted.

"In other words he was a ghost and no amount of semantics will change that. Calling 'great spirit of the Millennium Puzzle' doesn't change that. Just think. Which probability is more likely? That Yugi either had a professional double that was a master at cheating or had a split personality that he created to unleash his latent talents and suppressed anger and to answer his feelings of powerlessness and loneliness, or that an ancient Egyptian ghost inhabited his body? Think."

"It's easier to not believe than to believe!" The crowd quickly rebuked, nodding to themselves. "You're so arrogant! You think you know everything about Duel Monsters! You're just angry at Yugi and all of us because you are a failure at life with broken dreams! – No! It's because you have no moral framework and no meaning to justify your existence, you crazy little bitch! That's how everyone who hates Yugi is like! They're either broken, angry people or evil psychopaths who want to take over the world! What do you know about actually playing Duel Monsters! You don't even have a tournament title! You're just a n00b whose full of herself and needs to be shown some respect! Shut the fuck up and die, you disgrace to humanity!"

Maya more than anything wanted to end this "conversation" but she continued, "It's not just the card game but the very basic premises of the storyline itself. Think about it. Why is so much dramatic weight given to what basically amounts to a children's trading card game?"

"It's not for children!" The crowd shouted back. "It's for teenagers and young adults!"

"Same thing really. Playingcard games to save the world is absurd is absurd either way. Their portrayal of friendship as some uber-magical, happy, and at times redeeming force is a comforting lie, because real friends hate each other all the time. The Heart of the Cards is more bullshit. How can cards magically answer you to make a god draw at exactly the right time. Because you are a good person? Being a good person was never a reward unto itself. No good deed goes unpunished."

"But what gets me the most is its inaccuracies with Ancient Egypt. People there didn't wear their hair out; let alone hair as goofy as Yugi's or Kaiba's, they shaved it. And don't get me started over the inaccurate mythology. Obelisk was never a god, Ra was not a giant mechanical chicken. I should know. My mother knew a lot about Egyptology."

"So if Duel Monsters is fake why even make it up?" Asked a person in the crowd only to be stared down. He shrunk and disappeared in shame.

"I don't know." Maya candidly answered. "I guess it has something to do with marketing the card game."

"So why even play?" Phoenix suddenly asked.

Maya couldn't answer. She didn't even know herself.

"Well, that was an interesting speech." Phoenix said. "However, it is obvious that your approach to Duel Monsters is disingenuous and shallow at best. It is clear that you never had the heart of a true duelist in the first place; otherwise you would have applied rationality to your premises and arrived at more valid conclusions. Your arguments are full of very flawed and patently false ideas, and rely on various assumptions requiring one very big citation needed. The burden of proof is on you to back up your ludicrous claims with evidence."

"But how can you exactly expect me to 'provide evidence'?" Maya protested. "We all know the Duel Monsters storyline and the rules of the card game. If anything you are the one most likely to argue something along the lines of 'having faith is evidence of things unseen?'"

"I would never say such a thing." Phoenix retorted. "The very fact you would suggest such a thing speaks to your darksided nature. If you don't like Duel Monsters, than simply don't play. I have no tolerance for you and your fellow miscreants corroding the light and hearts of true duelists. We are one big family and we have a family's values, of charity, generosity, and hope, and not your petty and vindictive selfishness."

"I saw an old homeless man sitting in the shadow of your huge building and –" Maya couldn't go on anymore. She felt like a hypocrite. She shook her head and walked off. She hated this, having to stand up and expose herself only to be humiliated in front of an audience of hundreds. She punched JC in the arm hard enough to make him wince. JC was about to strike back

"Righteousness and good always prevails over evil. Look at the beauty and justice and order of the world all around you! It is a testament to the natural order of things. Nature is a balance and God ordains this balance, which is what we call justice. Those who are evil have already been or will be dealt with retribution. This is expressed in nature through their misfortune in nature's order. Now, justice will be dealt to you miscreants. TEAMMATES!"

The three other band members who stood in the background this whole time rose and stood shoulder to shoulder with Phoenix. Phoenix pointed to a potbellied, balding man with a graying mustache, wearing an odd headset and large, rectangular glasses. "This is TheEnigma," He pointed to a tall, lanky dark-skinned young man. "This is DrinkingMolotov." He pointed to a peach-skinned woman with heavy makeup with peroxide blond hair with black inner piecing. "This is CrystalCristy," He pointed to a tall man with green eyes wearing black clothes and piercings with unkempt, matted dyed black hair. "And finally this is AssassinOnion. Together we are Team Shining Crusaders, the greatest team in New York."

He pointed at JC. "Now is the time for your retribution. We will each clean you up one by one. We will start with JC because he began all this nonsense and we will end with Maya because she resisted me the most. JC, meet TheEnigma, your first and last opponent from my team. Let the duel begin!"

Pheonix and all of his teammates except TheEnigma jumped off as the arena sank down until it once again became a coliseum-like pit. Phoenix's two bodyguards emerged from one of the doors below and shoved Yukio, Jolene, and Maya to the corner and blocked them from going any further. JC stood staunchly, staring down his opponent, ready for the merciless ordeal that waited ahead.


	7. Duel 7 - Hell's Stench

**Duel 7 – Hell's Stench**

The duelist known as the TheEnigma stared JC down with cold blue eyes behind his huge square glasses. They were piercing and glazed like marbles, utterly devoid of anything resembling human emotions. "Let's see whatcha' got, sporty." Enigma said with a voice that was soft, low, and dangerous.

"Alright then. Time for me to bash your face in. You asked for it." JC shot back. He activated his duel disk and let it unfold itself into place. "It's time to show you and your groupies up including Phoenix over here for all the frauds you really are. Your stories about Yugi are just a bunch of childish fairy tales to turn gullible idiots into corporate drones."

**DistressedDuelist: 4000 II TheEnigma: 4000**

Suddenly, the arena and the whole atrium above became dark as if all of the lights went out. And could JC see a fog? He clutched his neck and arms and legs. He felt as if tight invisible bands were wrapped around him, chocking him. "What is this?"

"I thought you might ask." Enigma grinned. "Last time I recall, you and your little friend in the back were spouting like little teapots how the Shadow Realm was just some myth. You see, sporty, you're dead wrong."

JC's jaw dropped. "WHAT! The Shadow Realm is real? Bullshit! This has got to be a hoax! This shit is nothing but smokes and mirrors to try to scare me into submitting into blind obedience!"

"Oh really." The glare in Enigma's eyes intensified. "We'll see whether your little assertion is true or not, doubting Thomas."

THE_ENIGMA – "I summon **Elemental HERO Stratos**!" A lean man glad in spandex and wearing a machine with two fans appears. "I search for one Elemental HERO in my Deck and add it to my hand and I choose Destiny HERO Disk Commander. Next move, I activate **Destiny Draw**. I discard Disk Commander and draw 2 cards." He fills his hand with 7 cards. "Hmm… I like my hand nice and big so I'll just set one card face down and end my turn."

DISTRESSED_DUELIST – "Finally! I can move! Time to die old man! I draw! I summon **Berserk Gorilla**!" A huge ape with bloodshot eyes and bulging, flailing limps appears. "Gorilla, pound his Stratos down!" The gorilla rushes, pulls Stratos from the air and smashes it on the ground. (Enigma's LP: 4000 3800)

Enigma winces. To JC's shock his body is burning and a small part of his body even burns off! The flames vanish as suddenly as they appear, leaving his right shoulder missing! But his right arm was still moving, suspended in mid air!

THE_ENIGMA – "See you're surprised. I told you but you wouldn't believe me, the Shadow Realm is real, and likewise all of the rules of Shadow Games are real too. The judgment of burning light cleanses us of the darkness. Each time either of us loses Life Points a little of us is burned away. The loser of this duel, one who has been destined by Fate as unworthy of the light and thus be banished into the shadows, will be burned away into the darkness."

The mob above shouts and cheers. "You said the Law of Nature, brother!"

DISTRESSED_DUELIST – "That's sick! How can you even want that!"

THE_ENIMGA – "That's just the way things are. I don't destroy a dark duelist to die horribly, a dark duelist does that to himself. She chose the path of darkness. She chose to become evil and unclean and corrupt the world. She chose death. I would rather drive a nail through the head of a dark duelist if that prevented her from turning any more people away from the light."

DISTRESSED_DUELIST – Almost cannot speak. "You're insane."

THE_ENIGMA – Completely unfazed. "I activate **Premature Burial**. I pay 800 to resurrect **Destiny HERO Disk Commander**!" His card flips face up. Enigma is set on fire again, burning away a part of his torso, as sleek and shiny warrior wielding many disks and weapons rises from the dead. (LP: 3800 3000) "With Disk Commander's effect I draw 2 more cards. I Tribute Disk Commander to summon **Thestolas the Firestone Monarch**!" The flashy warrior shatters and is replaced by a bulky, apish monster with burning fists, clad in clunky red armor. "Thestolas activates. I choose your left most card in your hand." JC drops his card. "I see your monster is Big Koala." Enigma gloats. "You lose 100 Life Points per its Level Stars, so you lose 700."

The monarch throws a fireball straight at JC. It crashes into him. JC screams in pain as he burns in flames and as part of his right thigh is scorched away. (JC's LP: 4000 3300). He can't believe his eyes! His right leg is still standing, but at the same time he can't feel anything where part of his thigh used to be. Impossible!

Enigma is right about to attack. JC snaps with a knee-jerk reaction. "I activate **Threatening Roar**! You can't attack this turn!" His card flips face up. A huge roaring din surges from it, forcing Thestolas to wince.

Enigma grunts. "Looks like you evaded me this time. Next time you won't be so lucky, sporty. I activate **Foolish Burial** and dump Malicious into the Graveyard and I set three cards face down. My turn ends."

DISTRESSED_DUELIST – "I draw…"

The dark clouds surrounding the entire arena gathered together and morphed into a huge looming image of Phoenix's face. "So you dark duelists think you have it all made up in this world, don't you? You think, 'I'm smart. I'm young. I'm rich. I have my whole life ahead of me. I don't need to have any accountability for my actions.' You're wrong! You may have it good now, dark duelists, but I fear for your future. The shadow realm, like Yugi, senses the evil hearts of dark duelists. Those with weak hearts always lose and are swallowed by the shadows."

JC, Yukio, Jolene, and Maya all cowered in fear over the gigantic and imposing Phoenix. Yukio, Jolene, and Maya huddled together behind the two bodyguards. JC covered his face with his duel disk and crouches on the ground.

Phoenix booms, "Perhaps it is time to test your purity and worth, to see whether you are fit for the living or are you fit for the shadows. Have you ever lied before?"

JC barely speaked, "Y-Yes."

"What do you get called for telling a lie? What does that make you, Jeffrey Cade?"

"A-A liar."

"Yes." Phoenix confirmed. "Yukio, have you ever drunk? Have you ever cussed?"

"What?" Yukio said, "What's wrong with those things? What does drinking swearing have to do with not being a good person?"

"A true duelist does not drink and does not swear!" Phoenix roared. "A true duelist is not a liar and a cheater like Bandit Keith! Does drinking and swearing make you a liar and a cheater like Bandit Keith?"

"Y-Yes."

"And we all know what happened to Bandit Keith. Jolene," Phoenix interrogated. "Have you ever done drugs before?"

"O-once…" Jolene winced, but she collapsed. "Alright! I admit it! I smoke pot every weekend and I tear up posters of Yugi and roll them up into joints!"

"And what does doing drugs make you, Jolene Summers?"

"A-a junkie?"

"Correct." Phoenix confirmed. "Maya, have you ever stolen before?"

"Yes, but I have to!" Maya cried. "My family is poor! I need to steal to make ends meet and I couldn't do that if I bought–"

"SILENCE! I don't care what your excuses are, criminal!" Phoenix boomed. "If you do a bad thing than you are bad! Period! Pity, indulgence, 'understanding', liberal values let vice and crime foment like sewer waste! You have stolen and many times too, what does that make you?"

"A theif…"

"Exactly. Now what does Yugi think of thieves, liars, and cheaters?"

The gang winced, "They are not true duelists."

"And what happens to those who are not true duelists."

"They pass away into the Shadow Realm. They aren't really people."

"The truth hurts, doesn't it?" Phoenix concluded. "But," He offered. "There is a way out. Repent of your inner darkness. Join the light so you may become true duelists. All you have to do is give your decks and your duel disks to Enigma."

Phoenix's bodyguards parted to allow Yukio, Jolene, and Maya through. The gang passed through in a half-dead, hypnotic state. JC stood his ground. He lifted his finger to Enigma. "You know what I think? This is what I think! Fuck you, you degenerate priest! I will never surrender to you!"

Yukio, Jolene, and Maya snapped awake as if cold water was splashed at them. "What kind of morality is that?" Maya protested. "So if a person does anything remotely 'wrong' once in their life, regardless of the context and issues involved, they're automatically evil? Your ideas corrode the very human spirit itself as wicked and needing to be fixed. And conveniently the way for people to be 'fixed' is swallow the 'truths' you possess and no one else has, to go like drones to your megachurch and listen to your diatribes for hours on end. There's no way you will ever obtain your heaven of faceless mannequin angels no matter how hard you try."

"And what kind of way is that to see the world anyway?" Yukio added. "I'd expect grown up people to see the world as a complex, gray place, not in black and white as a child does. How can you deal with any real ethical issues as a duelist if you just see things in simplistic terms of good and bad?"

"That's because it's not meant to actually be a moral compass or a way of dealing with life." Maya said. "It's just to tell the masses who God is and who the Devil is, which authority to love and which authority to hate."

JC stated in conclusion, "Your morals are nothing but barking sheepdogs. 'BARK! BARK! GET BACK IN LINE!' whenever people stray from the flock. But we are amoralists. We are anarchists in the realm of the true duelist."

The dark clouds above the gang rumbled and roared into a storm. It wasn't until a few moments later they realized that the rumbling, roaring storm was the crowd surrounding them, shouting them down, shrieking at them, shouting for their heads.

The huge apparition of Phoenix's face contorted into a deadly scowl. The dark crowds surrounding everyone seemed to draw thicker and thicker every passing second.

"Suit yourself, sporty." Enigma whispered. JC could tell he was far more dangerous for his creepy voice became ever softer. But JC wasn't a coward. He stared his enemy down like he was about to murder him.

DISTRESSED_DUELIST – Draws. "I activate **Pot of Greed**, which allows me to –"

"Draw two cards." Maya quipped. "The audience isn't made of goldfish."

"SHUT UP!"

"Actually, now that you think about it kind of is." Jolene countered.

DISTRESSED_DUELIST – Draws 2 cards. "All your little traps you set for me are busted Enigma! **Giant Trunade**!" A dusty, gray maelstrom cycles into motion, howling.

THE_ENIGMA – "Not so fast, sporty! Activate **Enemy Controller**!" A huge early 90s gaming controller materialized. "I use it on your Beserk Gorilla! Left, right, A, B!" Distressed scoffs, "Big deal! It's only in defense, unless –" Beserk Gorilla, due to its effect, bursts into pieces to a laughing Enigma. The maelstrom blows off Enigmas cards back to his hand, but he remains unfazed, grinning.

DISTRESSED_DUELIST – "Oh yeah! Lets see you laugh at this! **Monster Reborn**! Revive **Big Koala**!" The familiar ankh shines blood red and takes the shape of a huge koala bear at least three times Distressed's height. "I now play **Polymerization**, fusing Big Koala with **Des Kangaroo **to summon **Master of Oz**!" A kangaroo wearing punching gloves and Big Koala liquefy and blur together, forming a giant kangaroo-koala chimera towering at least fifteen meters tall. Enigma's jaw drops. He chokes for air.

"Battle! Master of Oz, kill Thestolas! One monarch is bad enough for one day!" Master of Oz slams a gloved fist, pounding right through Thestolas's armor, shattering it. Enigma curses under his breath. (LP: 3000 1200) He screams as hellish fires burn away the middle of torso, leaving a huge gap between his chest and his pelvis. "How do you like that, you fucking creep. I set one card down. Your move, that is, if you have a move."

The gang behind him thrust their fists into the air. "Yes JC!" Jolene bounced around, throwing her fists in the air. "We knew you could do it!"

"Who knew you were a cheerleader?" Maya said.

"Be gentle with my girl, will you?" Yukio chastised. "No one talks to Jolene like that."

"It was a joke you twit."

The huge cloudy formation of Phoenix's face contorted into a scowl. He hovered, leering above them like a wrathful god. "We'll see how well you and your friend last. Evil may have a slight advantage in this world, but ultimately evil, in spite of all its power, wealth, armies, and empty words always loses and the good are rewarded."

"Oh shut up already, you oversized syphilis-infected butt pimple!" Yukio shouted. "Why don't you give your servant room to fight for his own if you have so much faith in him!"

"Quite, dark duelist! Enigma is more than a match for JC and his little cadre of antisocial scum. In fact, I predict that this upcoming turn right now JC will be completely crushed. From then on, the duel goes downhill from here."

The audience around them all gathered into an increasingly frightening roar, the din echoing all over the arena below. "Watch lambs as the wicked are slaughtered and righteousness prevails!" Phoenix shouted. The audience cheered in anticipation.

THE_ENIGMA – Draws. "This duel ends now, psychologically anyway. I activate **Destiny Hero Malicious** in my Graveyard to Special Summon him." A superhero wearing devil-style clothing with large black wings emerges from a dark vortex below. "And now I sacrifice him to summon my favorite monster **Caius the Shadow Monarch**!" A familiar monarch figure, now dressed in obsidian armor as dark as night, appeared from the void. "With Chaius's effect I will banish from play your precious ace monster." Caius cupped its hands together and grew a dark sphere pulsating with wicked electrical energy.

DISTRESSED_DUELIST – "No! No! I can't let this happen! **Bottomless Trap Hole**!" Caius throws its sphere at Oz, collides with it – at the same time a another sphere, huge, more of a whole, just as dark as Caius's, opens up and sucks Caius in. In a flash both dark orbs vanish, leaving behind an empty field.

Distressed trembles. "My best monster…" He clenches his fists. "I don't stand a chance anymore."

"That is the fate of a dark duelist." The huge face of Phoenix says stiffly. "In his hour of greatest need, his servants abandon him. That is what a dark duelist gets for treating his servants as mere tools for his own glory."

JC falls down on his knees, the flames in his eyes dying into ash. "No…"

"There is only one way to save yourself from the shadows. Repent yourself of your evil ways and join the light. You don't have to play this shadow game. You don't have to be a dark duelist. It can all go away. "

DISTRESSED_DUELIST – "I won't give up." Stands up and draws. "I set 1 card face down."

THE_ENIGMA – "You just won't learn, will you. Bad guys never learn. Draw! I activate **Destiny Hero Malicious **in my Graveyard. I remove it from play to special summon another one!" The familiar warrior in devil's costume appeared only to vanish a few seconds later. "I sacrifice it to summon **Raiza the Storm Monarch**!" A familiar looking giant, clothed this time in metallic green and gray, graced the field with its presence. 

THE_ENIGMA – "With Raiza's effect your face down is put back on top of your deck." Raiza conjures a small tornado and in a whiplash JC's card vaporizes. "Now time to pummel you! Raiza, beat this dark duelist down!" Raisa leers forward and slams Distressed with its fists, throwing him back, toppling on the floor. (LP 3000 600) Distressed's body bursts into flame and hescreams. Smoke rises, leaving almost all of his torso gone, his arms and legs suspended on their own. "I set 1 face down." Enigma ends with a smirk.

The audience roars in delight at the sight of Distressed suffering. _KILL THE FREAK! KILL THE FREAK! KILL THE FREAK!_

DISTRESSED_DUELIST – Draws. His knees are shaking badly. He breathes heavily. He scrapes with a hoarse voice. "I… will… not… lose…" He collapses on his knees again and buries his face with his hands. "No! I am a dark duelist! I am a bad person! I shouldn't be doing this! My God, Phoenix, I'm so scared!" He breathes heavily as if he is claustrophobic; as if he is trapped in a dark cave somewhere. "I'm so sorry! What do I have to do!?"

"It's quite simple." Phoenix says plainly, his voice calm and relaxing. "Let the light wash you away. Let all your dirt, all of who you are, drain away, and everything will be fine."

The rest of the gang also lose their confidence. The death of JC's ace monster is also the death of their hope. Not even Maya and Jolene's sarcasm can protect them anymore. "Really?"

"Yes. All of your troubles will be put to rest. You see, the only one who causes your troubles, your inner darkness, is you. It's all a matter of perspective really, your 'settings' of objective reality. It depends on whom you follow. A good shepherd leads the flock to good pasture. If you follow the right person you will feel the right way. Shining Crusaders could really use some new members."

JC feels his limbs and his eyelids sag. It's as if his brain is evaporating, leaving a pleasant diffusion in his skull where it used to be. His hatred of himself and his large and obese body, the contempt he received at his school, his mother's screaming and dirty, ugly face all spiral into a black hole. The floor beneath him softens and he feels himself sink, down, down, down… He places his hand on his deck, ready to surrender.

– Until! He clutches his fists so hard his nails dig into his palms. He can't understand why, but for some reason a big part of him screams that he can't die. And for some strange reason it sounds like Maya's voice. "So you're saying we cause all our problems but we need someone else to fix them. You're new to this whole scam artist thing, aren't you?"

And just those words are a reassurance. JC rises up to his feet again to see Phoenix and Enigma's vexed faces. There was still one last option.

DISTRESSED_DUELIST – Draws. "I summon **Bazoo the Soul Eater**." A baboon with strange glowing blue fur is summoned. "I remove from play 3 monsters from my Graveyard to power him up by 300 points each." Three wispy, silvery spheres escape from Distressed's graveyard slot and enter into Bazoo's mouth, making it triple its size. (ATK 1600 2500) "I… I set 1 face down. I end my turn."

THE_ENIGMA – "Holding out, huh sporty?" He smirks. "It won't last for long. Face it, sporty, you'll only be able to do it so long. You will soon run out of defenses and when you do," His voice softened even more, becoming even more dangerous. "You lose. I end my turn."

DISTRESSED_DUELIST – "You're toying with me, you little bitch! How dare you! I'll fuck you up right now!"

"No! It's an obvious trap!" Maya shouts.

"SHUT UP! What am I to do anyway? I have to attack or he'll just buldose over me! Do you have any better plans, captain obvious!?"

Maya is left standing as sturdily as a withered leaf. She feels like an idiot.

DISTRESSED_DUELIST – I use Bazoo's effect again!" Bazoo is engorged once more. (ATK 1600 1900) "I activate my face down, **Horn of the Phantom Beast**!" Pheonix and Enigma's jaws drop. "Where the hell did he get that card?" Two huge gold antler-like horns emblazon on top of Bazoo's head, engulfing it in powerful red-hot flames. (ATK 1900 2700). "Then I play **Wild Nature's Release**!" Bazoo's body grows even larger, its muscles bulge to the point of shattering outside its body. (ATK 2700 3600)

"Last time I bothered to do math 3600 minus 2400 equals 1200, the exact amount of life points you have." Enigma's eyes shine with fear. He lurches back. "When this attack connects it's game. Bazoo, finish him off!" Bazoo breathes into its hands and molds in its palms two shining balls of light and throws them at Raiza. The destructive balls were just about to connect –

THE_ENIGMA – "Game over, sporty. I activate my trap, **Phoenix Wing Wind Blast**. I discard 1 card to bounce Bazoo back to your hand." And at that instant the two white hot balls are instantly snuffed out. Bazoo bursts into flames, burning away into a small orange ball, and shoots straight at Distressed's duel disk.

DISTRESSED_DUELIST – Sinks to the floor, his head low, never to rise up again. There were no words left for him to say. The gang behind him also sinks, their heads just as low.

The crowd roars into a full thunderstorm. _KILL THE FREAK! KILL THE FREAK! KILL THE FREAK!_

THE_ENIGMA – "To think you actually were close to beating me, sporty. Raiza, finish him!" Raiza flexes its huge hands and a gust of wind hits Distressed so hard it knocks him to the edge of the arena. Corroding flames return and sear away the rest of his body until nothing is left.

Yukio, Jolene, and Maya scream in despair. He's gone. The crowd cheers in adulation.

**DistressedDuelist: 0 II TheEnigma: 1200**

The dark swirling clouds thin and dissipate. The whole arena and the entire crowd surrounding it form into view and Phoenix is now, once more, a short man on a high stand with uniform.

JC was still there! The gang rushed to him. He was unconscious but still there. Yukio shook JC violently. "Wake up, you stupid prat! Wake up!"

Jolene took out of her purse a water bottle and poured it all over JC's head and slapped him over again. A few moments later JC eyes fluttered open and he violently shook as if he was being tazered. JC breathed heavily. Slowly and in great pain he came to his knees.

Enigma slapped his hands together. "What's done is done. I took out the trash, well, not quite."

Phoenix's bodyguards leered over the gang, holding filled syringes, the noxious liquid inside squirting out. Maya's eyes widened. "What's that?"

"Why that is hallucinogenic drug, silly girl. The shadow game is a simulation. It doesn't actually kill the loser. However, it serves as a powerful allegory, a reminder to the duelist and the audience of the dangers of being a dark duelist, and what will happen when one chooses the path of wickedness. This drug just enhances that a little…"

"By that creepy cryptic hinting you mean…"

It puts them to sleep, provided they weren't knocked out in the 'shadow game' already. It causes them to enter into a nightmare where all the beasts of Hell attack them. When Kaiba lost his first shadow game to Yugi he was punished for his misdeeds by imagining being attacked by monsters. When JC gets through with this he will want to be a saint. And not just him. All of you get the drug. I would inject every person I saw with this drug if it meant keeping them away from corrupting true duelists."

The bodyguards stood imposingly over the groveling gang. "All right kids. It's time for your penalty game."

"What do we do…" JC moaned.

Maya's eyes hopped from JC to Yukio to the guards to Jolene to her duel disk to the guards to her duel disk to guards. "We have no other option but fight."

Maya took off her duel disk. She recoiled herself and lunged the duel disk straight at one of the guard's faces. The disk shattered his face with a sickening crack, throwing on the ground moaning in pain. JC and Yukio together smashed the second bodyguar with their fists, pummeling him to the ground. The gang got up and ran to the arena door.

"No!" Phoenix screamed over his microphone. "Guards, stop them! Someone, stop them!"

The gang slammed through the atrium and out into the city outside. They scattered away from each other like leaves in the wind, sprinting indiscriminately in any possible direction like hooligan idiots. They never looked back.


	8. Duel 8 - The Old World

**Duel 8 – The "Old" World**

**meh**

_[Light from a clear blue late September day seeps in through the windows into an empty classroom. Maya sits on a desk, holding a small cheap camera with one arm. For a whole minute she sits completely still, eyes downcast. Finally she looks up and speaks.]_

So… This is my first video, ever. I mean, I would post this on the Dueling Network but the Shining Crusaders shut down all our accounts, so I will be using Daily Motion instead. I might as well introduce myself. My name is Marina but you can call me Maya. I love to play and compose music, especially Classical style music. I like nature, getting away from people to be at peace, the sunrise. I also love books, like history and philosophy. My room has piles of them.

Um… I consider myself a shy person. I like to do my own thing. I often brood about certain ideas. I'm perfectionistic and a control freak but I can be quirky and energetic. I like being sarcastic. I'm 5'5'', very thin. Do I drink/smoke? Yes. I don't date, I don't believe in relationships. I don't have a zodiac sign, I don't believe in astrology. I don't believe in anything really. Doubt and uncertainty are natural and logical to me. I don't find it easy to accept ideas or trust people without good reasons to. _[She shrugs.]_

I'm also a duelist and I wish I could duel right now but unfortunately I lost my deck. Yeah… I forgot to take it out before I chucked it at that security guard…To be honest I almost want to quit. The Shining Crusaders – they are the biggest team in New York in case you didn't know – make the game into a weird cult. I hardly began playing and already I stepped into this subculture with rules I knew nothing about. They seriously think a children's show is real, that all the events actually happened. They take it as literal truth and have built all these rules around it.

Like… there is this idea of being a true duelist, whatever that means. And if you don't follow their narrow road of virtues than you are not a true duelist. But how can I even follow it? I try to be a good person. I work to support father. I get good grades. I protect my friends like JC. Shouldn't that make me a true duelist? I don't know what a true duelist is, just what it's not. And what it's not is… _[She raises her hand, exasperated.] _Anything the Shining Crusaders decide it's not. To be a true duelist you have to do what they say and fit in how they think the world should be. But I can't do that.

And maybe I am being oversensitive or too PC but I don't like the 'demographics' of what I've seen so far. I'm not white and I don't come from here. Father is Serbian hence my name but mother was a black Muslim. And I'm female, so I'm pretty much as 'abnormal' as I can be. Every opponent my friends and me faced so far was a white man. Sure there's CrystaalCristy but she's their token. And as long as she accepts being a token – actually, I doubt she'll ever be called a true duelist.

And what's with everyone using a chaos or monarch deck. It's not just that it's the only deck everyone uses but it's the only deck that works. If you want to duel in the big leagues you use chaos or monarchs. I only won against VolcanoMan by his own stupidity. And they have his whole idea of decks you can and can't use. Like when I was buying my deck there were commercials of women dueling with 'girl decks' like angels, harpies, and amazons. But I didn't want a girl deck so I got a water deck and now it's lost. My friends JC and Yukio talked the other day of how it was 'black' to use a beast deck and 'Asian' to use machines. Zombies, fiends, and anything 'weird' is off limits. I know. I saw a kid got beat up for it. They think Bakura is Satan. It's sick and stupid. All of it.

I really sometimes wonder if I came from another planet. None of the rules of the dueling world makes sense. One guy said to me 'You see the world around you and you reject it.' Yes I reject it because it's shallow and disgusting. What I see around are all of these tropes, these catchy, empty truisms. Everything I just talked about the dueling world and all the sermons I've heard from Phoenix are tropes. And it's infantile. Living by these tropes is like being a child all your life, doing whatever the Shining Crusaders tell you. I am born, I go to school, I go to work, I get married, I have kids, I retire, I die. I go to church, I obey my boss, and I get wasted during the weekends. I am free.

_[Maya sighs deeply and heads over to a barred window. She points her camera at it, fixing the lens through it at the steel valley of buildings.] _

The dueling world is a giant prison. It's one of the joys of being me I guess. I'm sorry for everything before. I don't know what's wrong with me. I guess I'm destined to be an outcast, to be the bad guy, to never fit in. Me, JC, Yukio, Jolene, us comrades. I'm… wrong. About everything. But I'd rather be wrong than right. I'm not making any sense any more.

Maya and Jolene sat at the top of the school building, smoking some cigs. They weren't allowed up there but they didn't care. Ever since Maya stole the school keys they copied them and had access to every room of the building. Maya inhaled the smoke from her cig deeply like it was a soothing medicine and exhaled. The smoke trailed up and away to the air above. It was chilly but sunny and the sky was a cloudless endless deep sea of blue. Maya wished she could fly.

"How's life cher?" Jolene asked.

"I'm in Hell, I mean high school. I work minimum wage, the Shining Crusaders nearly brainwashed us and I lost my deck."

"Stop trying to put a positive spin on its."

Maya chuckled. "How's your little bro?"

"You mean Chip? He's doing great. He learned the difference between a fact and an opinion in kindergarten today. He also learned how important it is think of other people's feelings."

"You know most grown ups still can't do that."

"A la JC. Now I'm really depressed."

"I thought I was putting a positive spin on things."

"I take it back. Do you have literature and history for today?"

Maya produced the literature and history homework due today for Jolene to copy. Jolene in turn produced math and physics homework for Maya to copy. A loud hollow knocking rang from the metal door. Four knocks then a pause… four knocks then a pause… Jolene rushed to open the door. It was Yukio.

"Heyyy!" Jolene hugged and kissed him. "How've you been?"

"Fine Jolene, fine. I thought I could bring over my band to Team Dark Duelists. It would be cool."

"Really? Awesome!"

"Yeah, I know. It'll be pretty cool once it gets set up. We could use the band to get more people on the team and our songs could critique the system. They don't call me Voltaire for nothing."

"I'm sure you'll do great." Jolene pecked him on the cheek. "Say hi Maya."

"No."

"You're so weird."

The couple sat down. "What are you reading Maya?" Yukio asked politely.

Maya showed him the cover. _Thus Spoke Zarathustra. _But Yukio could see the inside. The pages were covered with walls of hieroglyphic underlines and circles, sentences written around the pages and some musical notes. "Cool. JC has that book too."

"Yup. Too bad he doesn't actually read it."

Jolene hugged and cuddled next to Yukio. Maya stuck her face in her book even though she was ready to write some ideas down. She was ready to throw up on the page. Why couldn't people keep it to themselves?

"So anyway JC's sick so he wants us minions work out a plan to attack the Shining Crusaders while he's out. So far I can't think of anything to do."

"So you're going to women for advise? Isn't that heresy to him?"

"It's heresy to Nietzsche."

"So why does he go talk to old women?"

"Whatever". Yukio waved off. "But we need to come up with something. But the Shining Crusaders are so powerful. You know the duel academy they turned into a megachurch? That is just one across all of America. Everything they say goes around here. They are everywhere. How do we even come to stopping them?"

"Well, we could recruit other teams if there are any." Jolene suggested. "Many are just branches of the Shining Crusaders now, but I'm sure there are some who are willing to join our cause."

"Which I tried. A few teams said yes like Team 42, Team Black Bloc, Team Five Pillars, Team Green…"

"But these teams are so small in numbers. They're like us. They have some pretty good duelists but our problem is simple numbers. How can we match that? We don't have a chance."

"Then we will create a chance." Maya suddenly interjected. "We will level the playing. What make the Shining Crusaders so formidable are their numbers and resources. I can't judge for every Crusader but from what I've seen from VolcanoMan the average Crusader is weak. Sure, he uses game breaking decks with expensive cards we could never hope to get but he is only capable of following a rulebook whether it is a simple strategy or Phoenix's dogma.

"What's your point?" Yukio aksed.

"My point is that the average Crusader is a disposable pawn. Losing VolcanoMan meant nothing to Phoenix. If we want to bring the Shining Crusaders down we should attack Phoenix and his band of four at the top. They are the lifeblood of the team. They are the strongest opponents and have the most symbolic significance. The best course of action would be to bring them down to our level. And we do this by forcing them to duel in small areas where their power and influence don't mean anything. We grab on to a small space and we hold on to it as a fortified position."

Yukio's jaw dropped. "Wow… I'm impressed. That's ingenuous."

Maya shook her head. "It's not. Leonidas in _300_ does that." Maya looked up from her book for the first time. Yukio and Jolene didn't know what she was talking about. "It's a graphic novel of the 300 Spartans taking on a whole Persian army. I think a movie might come out soon. VolcanoMan would never stop referencing it."

"That's great, but where do we set up our base of operations may I ask?"

Maya shrugged. "I don't know."

"Maybe we can set it up near our headquarters." Jolene suggested. "You know, JC's basement."

Yukio shook his shaggy black head. "No. It's too close to where we keep all our stuff. Even if it's hard to find, if it is found we will lose everything. But at the same time, if we set a new base we're going to have to move everything with us. We're in a nice middle-class section. We might as well keep it. In particular I think we should make FDR Drive our stronghold. It's quite out of the picture. It's a good place for one of Phoenix's cronies to feel all alone."

"But there is one more issue, sweety." Jolene said. "All our accounts are deleted. We still need to publicize our duels to show the dueling world how we humiliate them. Otherwise, they can just spin the story and claim it never happened."

Maya took out her camera. "Daily Motion?"

Jolene squinted, but Maya could see the laughter in her eyes. "Where did you steal that?"

"From the computer lab."

Yukio shook his head. "You're both crazy. I'm outta' here." He kissed Jolene before leaving.

Maya buried herself back in her book. "You're an uninteresting case. Whenever you're with your boyfriend you turn into goop."

"You're not very interesting either." Jolene retorted. "You're too scared to get into a relationship so you become a loathsome prude who pretends to know better."

Maya buried her face deeper into her book.

"Don't make that nasty face at me!"

The next day JC was back in spirits. Predictably he announced his return like the Terminator and demanded a session in his "headquarters" after school. Yukio elaborated yesterday's plan.

JC stroked his scraggly beard. "Hmm… Excellent! I like the way you think Yukio. You have the heart of a lion and the eyes of an eagle. There's just one problem. **YOU, MAYA!** Where's your deck?"

"I lost it." Maya sheepishly responded.

"What kind of duelist loses their deck?" JC exasperated, the whole basement ringing with his loud voice. "I swear I'm going to make a vlog about this on. Well, no matter. We all need to revamp our decks a bit if we're going to compete against all those generic monarch decks. We will need to find effective strategies based on our own unique decks."

Now it was Yukio's turn to scratch his goatee. "Hmm… Yeah. That'll be a problem. Monarchs are the most effective decks out there. We can use some anti-monarch support but other than that we're just going to have to find a bunch of new cards and swing at the dark. Maya, were you going to say something?"

"Huh? Oh, I guess I was. There are other mainstream decks out there, like chaos and lightsworn. We have to fight against those too. I haven't seen many chaos decks. Maybe it's because the cards are so expensive only the upper classes can use them. And we might face some Yata."

Everyone groaned. "When will that bird die already!"

Maya couldn't blame them.

"Anyway!" JC interjected. "I have a plan. Yukio and me will pick on the weakest link, CrystaalCristy, and isolate her by luring her to our little area. Then we have Jolene take her own in a nice catfight."

"We're dueling, JC, not shooting porn." Maya reminded.

"I know what I'm talking about! Don't lambast me as some male pig, you condescending feminazi. Because of that, you and Jolene do the dirty work. You do what Maya does best, you two go steal all the cards you can find. Some gear like duel disks will be great too."

"Since you and Yukio are going to lure CrystaalCristy to her demise why don't one of you duel her. I promise you won't get cooties."

"**BECAUSE SHUT UP! THAT'S WHY! **Besides…**" **A wicked grin came on his face. "I need you to steal stuff anyway. We'll use it as bait."

"I guess this wraps it up." Yukio said. "I gotta' go practice."

"I gotta' pick Chip up." Jolene left.

"I gotta' work. Then cook for my dad so he doesn't kill me." Maya left.

JC stood all alone in his basement. Even though the cheap overhead lights flashed a blaring white the room felt far darker than ever before. Was any of this even worth it? JC didn't know what he was doing. He doubted any of the others knew what they were doing also. There was a burning in his chest, a fire of passion and anger and frustration and it had to go somewhere. Whether it was ranting passionately in a video or dueling some goon of the system or creating his little revolution he had to do it. There was nothing else he could think of doing. Everything else seemed so empty.


End file.
